Project Detail

Bad Apples

Synopsis

Maria is a primary school teacher doing her best to inspire a class of 11-year-olds, but she's unable to because of one unruly and chaotic student. With her career in question and the child’s behaviour spiralling, she makes a series of bad decisions that lead to her accidentally taking and locking this "bad apple” in her home. She tries desperately to backtrack, but when the class starts flourishing and the staff and parents are thrilled with the improvement, she finds herself in a very complicated predicament.
As entertaining as it is provocative, BAD APPLES challenges us to think about our society’s systems and how we justify them to ourselves. Loosely based on Rasmus Andersson’s debut novel 'De Oönskare', which plants a mirror at society, lifting up the covers and showing the ethical hypocrisy that lies beneath many of our individual or collective decisions.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2025 - World premiere
Official Selection San Sebastián International Film Festival 2025 - European premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025 - Official Competition

Details

Year: 2025
Type of project: Features
Running time: 99 min
Format: DCP
Director: Jonatan Etzler
Producer: Oskar Pimlott
Co-Producer: Benjamin Greenacre
Executive Producer: Judy Counihan, Jamie Hall, Paul Grindey, Charles Moore, Peter Watson, Marie-Gabrielle Stewart
Editor: Robert Krantz
Screenwriter: Jess O'Kane
Director of Photography: Nea Asphäll
Production Designer: Jacqueline Abrahams
Sound: Andreas Franck
Composer: Chris Roe; Music Supervisor: Matt Biffa
Principal cast: Saoirse Ronan, Sean Gilder, Kerry Howard, Eddie Waller
Casting Director: Fiona Weir

Genre

Comedy

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Pulse Films

The Old Dairy
29-33 Scrutton Street
London
EC2A 4HU

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Sales Company

HanWay Films

22 Stukeley Street
London
WC2B 5LL

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Kevin and Cassandra are a married couple who have lost their only daughter Hannah in a freak car accident. They both raised her differently. Kevin had been a traditional parent, Cassandra a permissive one. While Hannah had decided to exhibit her body and mind online, she cut adrift from her father and gravitates towards her mother. Her death drove a wedge between them. Their lounge becomes a battlefield where incendiary words and spiteful things are said. Their marriage is one where opposites no longer attract. Kevin is filled with loathing for his in-laws, his daughter’s boyfriend, himself. Cassandra wears her daughter’s favorite colours with pride and exhibits her painting on the walls. Kevin finds he is powerless in his home and Cassandra mocks the fact that it was her father who bought it. And when he finally leaves it, he leaves Cassandra forever.

Black Drama