Little Joe

Little Joe is a 2019 internationally co-produced drama film directed by Jessica Hausner. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes, Emily Beecham won the award for Best Actress. Beecham stars as Alice Woodard, a plant breeder and single mother who creates "Little Joe", a plant that gives its caretakers joy. Plot Alice Woodard (Emily Beecham) is a plant breeder who works in a lab that focuses on creating new strains of flowers. While her colleague Bella (Kerry Fox) is failing at creating a hardy plant that will survive even weeks of undernourishment and neglect, Alice and her team have successfully created a flower that requires more care than an ordinary plant but which makes their owners happy. Alice decides to name the plants "Little Joe" in honour of her son and smuggles out one of the plants for him. The Little Joes begin to aggressively pollinate, which Alice theorizes is because she has made them sterile. The same day Bella's dog, Bello, goes missing. Chris (Ben Whishaw) goes looking for him and accidentally inhales some of the pollen. Later on he takes Alice out and, despite her obvious reluctance, attempts to kiss her twice.