A sensorial dive into the strange science and cinema of fruit. From forbidden gardens to fermented futures, this avant-garde harvest peels back layers of biology, myth, and memory. Welcome to FRUITOPIA—where fruit is more than food. It’s memory, mutation, and meaning.

In this curated selection of films, the fruit becomes a prism—splitting into themes of innocence and decay, labor and leisure, climate and colonialism. Through pixelated plums, maracuyá dreams, and speculative guavas, the imagery unearths a world where what we eat is never just a bite. These films stretch beyond the literal, exploring how fruit seduces, stains, and seeds stories across cultures.

Here, fruit is not passive—it bruises, bleeds, resists, and transforms.

Up Against the Dragon

FILM United States 2019
Mark Rigler

This film has been selected for the 12th PSSST! Silent Film Festival competition in Zagreb (Croatia). Another fruity time lapse, featuring a nectarine, a few strawberries and a dragon fruit. I shot the time lapse with three cameras over two to three weeks.

All Small Bodies (2017)

FILM Germany, United States 2017
Jennifer Reeder

ALL SMALL BODIES is a feminist fable based on HANSEL and GRETEL by the Grimm brothers. The story takes place in the distant future among the ruins of a global disaster, revealing the abuses of history and technology. Among the survivors of a chaotic tomorrow are two young girls named Z and Bub. ALL

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JACKFRUIT

FILM Germany 2021
Thuy Trang Nguyen

A gender-fluid Berliner fights to reconcile love and identity, as their grandmother's Alzheimer's threatens their family history.

Ad una mela

FILM Italy, Austria 2020
Alice Rohrwacher

The Viennale'20 trailer is directed by Alice Rohrwacher, undoubtedly one of the most original voices in contemporary cinema, who already opened the festival in 2018 with LAZZARO FELICE . Shot in Bolsena, the beloved landscape where the filmmaker lives and works, AD UNA MELA is a gem of pure cinema,

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To An End Spells

FILM United States 2025
Nana Kwabena Zak Cedarholm

Amidst her village, Sumsun, nearing the brink of extinction, an unforgiving desert warrior fights to protect the legacy of Palve, a sacred psychedelic fruit that connects its indigenous to the spiritual realm. The only way to experience the effects of this scarce and forbidden hallucinogenic is thro

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A Common Sequence

FILM United States 2022
Mary Helena Clark Mike Gibisser

Within the human struggle to live and work, and with the materials for survival available for exploitation, seemingly foreign worlds are intertwined in the modern battlefield of patents, ownership, and colonialism. Delving into labor and science practices, A Common Sequence examines who gets to work

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Brazilian Cupuacu

FILM Brazil 2014
David R. McClellan

In early 2014, a small team was dispatched to Northern Brazil to capture the Cupuacu story for Aveda Corporation. Known for quality hair and skin care products, Aveda's commitment to sourcing quality ingredients was unique and unorthodox. The brand preferred to work directly with small entities to e

Uogos (Cherries)

FILM Lithuania 2022
Vytautas Katkus​

A recently retired father invites his son to help him with the cherry picking in the garden. The father is in no hurry to finish the cherry job though, as he tries to catch up with his son. The cherries remain in the background.

Orange (1962)

FILM Austria 1962
Marc Adrian

In order to make Orange , Adrian had fifteen people freely recount things they associated with the word "orange." He then took photographs, which accompanied their associations and gathered all of the definitions of "orange" he found in a dictionary: the fruit, the color, the city, etc. Finally, he

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Planet Z

FILM France 2012
Momoko Seto

Somewhere in the Universe, on the PLANET Z, a miracle happens. A water jet springs up and gives birth to a new life: plants. A desert planet becomes a green planet. Different species cohabit, including liquid and sticky mushrooms. But little by little, the mushrooms invade the green land and destroy

Ode to the Papaya

FILM United Kingdom 2023
Edward Heredia

An exploration of the diasporic experience as something visceral, transformative and violent. How do you reinvent yourself in a new context without losing your identity? This is the question that permeates Anciela's SS23 collection as designer Jennifer Droguett sets out to re-develop Latin American

Limonada

FILM USA 2020
Marcos Nieves

Limonada portrays an eccentric chemist working on developing a "limonada" antidote to identify sweet talkers. The chemist tests her antidote on her clones until she finds the right antidote.

Cosmic Pudding

FILM France 2023
Geneviève Anhoury

Earth. The only known place in the universe where you can bake a fruit pie and from which you can embark on an adventure into distant interstellar space surrounded by cosmic bodies, planets, and new knowledge.

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Hypnagogia (2024)

FILM Canada 2024
Cecilia Araneda

In the threshold between sleep and wake, hallucinations and moments of paralysis take hold. Hypnagogia is an exercise in eco-processing, with different 16 mm B&W film stocks processed with multiple different organic material, including apples, avocado peel, coffee, grapes, peaches, pomegranate and w

59th second

FILM Czech Republic 2024
Kateryna Ruzhyna

This experimental film takes a closer look through the entomologist's lens at the cyclical behavioural patterns linking humans to the insect world. Just as the fig wasp inevitably finds death in the pollination of the fig tree flower, we too are thrown into the dance of passion and death. Drawn by t

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Dream of a Persimmon Girl

FILM China 2022
Wenkai Wang

Dream of a Persimmon Girl is a collaborative work between fashion brand ZAMX and director Wenkai Wang. Shanghai and NYC-based filmmaker Wenkai Wang creates an immersive dream world in a new fashion film shot in Zhuchuan Village, Shizhen, on the western island of Lin'an. Dream of a Persimmon Girl dwe

Coyolxauhqui (2017)

FILM Mexico 2017
Colectivo Los Ingrávidos

In Aztec mythology, Coyolxāuhqui was the Moon goddess who was dismembered by her brother Huītzilōpōchtli, the sun god of war and sacrifice. The film brings this deeply embedded story of Mexican heritage into a modern context, and parses out the legacy of patriarchy in a country that in 2022 was call

Voices from the Barrens: Blueberries, Native Peoples, and Sovereignty

FILM United States 2020
Nancy Ghertner Brian Francis (Mi’kmaq tribal group)

Voices from the Barrens Short Synopsis in English and French "Voices from the Barrens, Native People, Blueberries and Sovereignty," documents the wild blueberry harvest of the Wabanaki People from the USA and Canada. The film focuses on the Passamaquoddy tribe's challenge to balance blueberry hand r

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Psychoterra (2025)

FILM Canada 2025
Emily Pelstring Naomi Okabe

Two scientists from the Technomystic Ecology Lab develop technology that processes the ecological grief contained within a database of audio testimonials. In their lab, located deep inside a cave, they alchemize these feelings into a seed archive for an unknown future.

4 Stages of Menstruation

FILM Ireland 2023
Joanna Hopkins

This film depicts in an experimental way, the 4 Stages of Menstruation; The Luteal Phase, The Follicular Phase, Menstruation and Ovulation. This film documents a temporary intervention in the Irish landscape, using natural materials. The pink fluff delicately swaying in the wind is one single female

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Lines to color within

FILM Canada 2019
Matthew Wolkow

Log line: An essay, halfway between poetry, documentary observation and musical experimentation. Short synopsis: EXT. DAY. MONTREAL. / On the outskirts of the metropolitan highway, a Mediterranean fig tree stands. / Said Ficus carica, this tree is the work of a 60-year-old Montrealer of Argentine or

Bananas Girl

FILM United States 2020
Shayna Connelly

Logline: Seven-year-old Bananas Girl asserts her independence, perfects the art of the non-sequitur and navigates the boundaries between herself and her mom. Synopsis: Seven-year-old Bananas Girl asserts her independence, perfects the art of the non-sequitur and navigates the boundaries between hers

Fruit (2015)

FILM Germany 2015
Gerhard Funk

Rise into being, mature, perish – Fruit tells a creation story. As the animated short film unfolds, it brings forth a play of shapes illustrating the dialog between two mythological forces – the West and the East. In it the vibrating entities of black and white are constantly being split

The Tree.

FILM United Kingdom 2019
Henry Tyson

A sort of documentary about the orange tree in my garden. Music is "Trees Against the Sky" by Moondog, from the album "Moondog" 1956. © Moondog Records.

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Jus d'orange

FILM France 2023
Alexandre Athané

Toni grows oranges. He loves them, they are his treasure. Until one day, strange cargo ships dock in the valley. Cargos loaded with... GREEN oranges!

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Strawberries in the Summertime

FILM Canada, United States 2013
Jennifer Reeves

Jennifer Reeves' method of diving into nature with a two-and-a-half-year-old and a camera is a celebration of the pure act of discovery, and an invitation to play with the idea of other means of hearing and seeing – incorporating negative and solarized images, fragmented voices, altered emulsi

Uptown Oasis

FILM United States 2022
Ian Philips

In 2004, Abdi Abajabal came to the United States from Ethiopia. In 2012, he decided to start a health juice shop in Harlem with only five hundred dollars to his name. Ten years later, he is still going.

Peau de pêche (Peaches)

FILM Canada 2023
Justine Prince

June 2010. 11 years old Julia and Raphaëlle are the best at killing time together. Between walking their blind neighbor's dogs and finishing their music video before Raph returns to Romania, they unconsciously grow apart. This nostalgic semi-autobiographical story recounts the last moments of t

Blues

FILM United States 1970
Larry Gottheim

A bowl of blueberries in milk, changing light radiant on the berries and on the glazed bowl, the ever more radiant orb of milk transforming into glowing light itself, with a brief shadow coda answering the complex play of shadows. The regular pulses of light framing the looser rhythmus of the spoon,

The Shark in the Park

FILM Germany 2016
Polynoid

The Shark in the Park visualizes the growth and development process of a special strawberry species called "Parco Pistris" which has been discovered by a Korean scientifical research group KSPRI in 2016. KSPRI commissioned animation-director-collective Polynoid to take their research and create a vi

Durazno (2014)

FILM Bolivia 2014
Yashira Jordán

A collage of dreams, fiction, and fragmented memory—this film is an intervention of acid, leaves, and flowers. Blurring the line between documentary and hallucination, it unfolds through textures: VHS archive, animation, Hi8, and Harinezumi, a Japanese spy camera. Over 21 days, a road trip thr

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The Golden Harvest

FILM Italy, Spain, Greece, Palestine, Israel 2019
Alia Yunis

The Golden Harvest a 6,000-year old love story in which the filmmaker tries to understand the profound, often troubled, relationship between olive trees and the people of Mediterranean, including her own father. It is a complicated romance, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, set in a region that inc

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Jamaican Sorrel

FILM USA 2023
Katerie Gladdys

Haylene Green aka The Garden Queen aka The Hibiscus Sorrel Lady, an Atlanta garden activist, tells the story of how she grows Jamaican Sorrel and makes her signature Sorrel drink.

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The Ferment Feast

FILM Russia 2024
Sodruzhestvo

A surreal ritual where glittering decay becomes the language of dialogue between flesh and time. Two manifestations of womanhood—the youthful and the withering—perform an act of symbolic consumption at a table laden with fermenting fruits. Their bodies gradually merge with the fruit, for

Mangosteen

FILM Thailand 2023
Tulapop Saenjaroen

Lensed with the fuzzy-edged resolution and smeary vibrancy of early-2000s standard-definition video, Tulapop Saenjaroen's film blends family drama, process documentary, and narratological meditation through the story of a man named Earth, his sister Ink, and their family business, a mangosteen-proce

Common Pear

FILM Slovenia 2025
Gregor Božič

In a not-too-distant future ravaged by climate crisis, a team of scientists analyse the archival footage of farmers from the past, in an attempt to understand their connection to the land. In this beautifully shot blend of documentary and fiction, Gregor Božić pays warm tribute to the old growers of

Amarillo (Yellow)

FILM United States 2016
Ana Pérez López

The artificial flavor of banana is based on a fruit that no longer exists. Gross Michelle was, until 1960, America's most popular strand of bananas. Its obituary is bleak, gooey, and speaks about the past, present and future global food politics. Director | Ana Pérez López Sound | Laur

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Mango Movie

FILM United States 2024
Jayme Kaye Gershen

Through a tapestry of observation, personal anecdotes, and collective reflections, Mango Movie, delves into the heart of Miami's beloved mango season and its intrinsic connection with community, nostalgia, and climate.

Niches (2024)

FILM United States, Spain 2024
Janelle VanderKelen

Whether it be doing yoga with ants, printing with plants, observing the quantum physics of cats, or considering the travel of an apple: not all teachers are human in a bustling Spanish farmhouse. While instances of interspecies care are enacted beneath the cool stone arches of this rambling structur

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How To Love a Palm Tree?

FILM Ukraine, United States 2025
Ivan Nevesenko

A Ukrainian filmmaker-refugee's exploration of Californian reality unfolds through a dialogue between the author and his wife about the palm tree, both as a biological species and a historical symbol. Through this conversation, he comes to see the palm's LA history as an immigrant, just like himself

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Feet in Water, Head on Fire

FILM Canada 2023
Terra Long

An invisible line connects California to parts of the Middle East and North Africa, where similar climates provide ideal growing conditions for date palm trees. Using textural 16mm, filmmaker Long surveys the arid California landscape along the San Andreas Fault—from microscopic plant cells to

Constellation (2021)

FILM Colombia 2021
Carlos Guzman

On July 11, 2021, Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spaceship tooks off with six crew members on board. In a short space of time they rose over fifty miles high, being able to observe planet earth. In the cockpit and for about three minutes without gravity, the billionaire tycoon Richard Branson celebrate

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Twenty-One Percent

FILM Switzerland 2016
Ursula Biemann Mo Diener

In this small formation history of atmospheric chemistry, flying and thinking beings emerge as the result of high levels of oxygen in the air which is owed to earth's forest and plant cover. In the midst of the oxygenic forest, a science-fictional performer manipulates a multitude of ingredients&nda

Fructose (2016)

FILM Colombia 2016
Ivan Argote

Deep in the English countryside, the government has preserved an apple tree, supposedly the very same from which Isaac Newton's apple fell from. This image of the falling apple giving the idea of the law of universal gravitation has been reproduced, vulgarized, reused, commercialized, etc., and yet

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Fear No Fruit

FILM United States 2015
Mark Brian Smith

The film chronicles Frieda Caplan's rise from being the first woman entrepreneur on the L.A. Wholesale Produce Market in the 1960s, to transforming American cuisine by introducing over 200 exotic fruits and vegetables to U.S. supermarkets. Still an inspiration at 91, Frieda's daughters and granddaug

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The Pickers

FILM Germany 2024
Elke Sasse

We want cheap fruit and veg, all year. No problem. The pickers deliver, but they are paying the price for us. THE PICKERS is a journey to European fields where our fruit and vegetables are grown: in Southern Italy, Seydou from Mali is picking oranges. He has no contract and is paid per crate. He liv

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Isle of Flowers

FILM Brazil 1989
Jorge Furtado

A tomato travels from a Brazilian plantation to a supermarket and to a consumer's kitchen. It spoils and is sent to the garbage dump, destined to be pig food.

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The Scents That Carry Through Walls

FILM United States 2020
Erin Wilkerson

A quarantine meditation on the scent of exile, told through the stories of family roots in Los Angeles and living in the shadow of the US/Mexico Border. This film was made for the indigenous who are treated as migrants in their own land. In their generosity, friendship, and hard work, they are the b

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Field (2016)

FILM Canada 2016
Dan Browne

An afternoon spent in an orchard picking fruit with family. "In the midst of beings as a whole an open place occurs. There is a clearing, a lighting." – Heidegger

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Green Gold? (2020)

FILM United Kingdom 2020
Nicky Milne

As the global demand for the super food avocados has soared, Chile has become the world's third-largest exporter of avocados. But the community of Petorca, Chile, say drought — and the insatiable appetite for avocados — has brought desperate water shortages. This film explores a quiet wa

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Guava (2024)

FILM Mexico 2024
Claudia Calderon

Guava lives in a space that has turned everything white and bland. She's kept a stock of her childhood favorite fruit which is running low. Despite her multiple attempts to reproduce it, she has been unable to harvest one with its distinctive inner color and flavor. Desperate of her failed attempts,

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Paraíso (Paradise)

FILM México 2022
Daniela Villarreal

Paraíso is a film and photographic series by Daniela Villarreal that explores the body through its relationship with nature. Conceived during an artist residency in the semi-virgin beaches of Chacala, Nayarit, the project reflects on the human tendency to manipulate reality in pursuit of perf

Seeing Fruit

FILM United States 2024
Carl DiSalvo

Seeing a myriad of fruits, pixel by pixel. Seeing Fruit deconstructs a selection of fruit—into streams of color and sound. In alternating diptychs, one side presents the fruit reduced to pure visual data; the other translates its pixels into ambient sonic textures. A study in slowness, attenti

Uchuva

FILM Brazil 2021
Calixto Bento

"One day, some drops of sunlight gave rise to fruits that were sheltered from the scorching cold among the leaves." Uchuva describes a movement of taking shelter. Without breaking the fine waterfall that surrounds this search for shelter.

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Body Fruit

FILM United States 2024
Linye Jiang

https://www.linyejiang.com/bodyfruit In my photography series, I explore the concept of the queer body, using the juxtaposition of the human form with vibrant red fruits. In this context, the term "queer body" transcends gender binaries, referring to a body that embraces non-normative expressions of

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Floating Melon

FILM China, Spain 2015
Roberto F. Canuto Xiaoxi Xu

A journey of passion, a bitter night. Xiao Cheng ask for help to resolve a big trouble, the guy with whom he spend the afternoon is dead on his bed from the effect of a drug, not something the Chinese authorities look kindly on.

The Perfect Apple

FILM USA 2014
Maria Juranic Rachel Meyer

For as long as humans lived around malus species, they've been eating apples. The apple tree has been domesticated, diversified - it has evolved in new ways via natural and artificial selection. But what is the perfect apple? Evolution of crop species: genetics of domestication and diversification.

Li Zhi

FILM China 2023
Soya Wu

It's the season for 荔枝 (lizhi/Lychee). Two lovers discover their sweet spots with this juicy, sweet tropical fruit.

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Sweet Like Lemons

FILM UK, Finland 2023
Jenny Jokela

Sweet Like Lemons is a visual reflection on getting out of a harmful relationship and moving on. The title is a play on the saying "when life gives you lemons make lemonade", only in this case there is no lemonade to be made but the lemons still taste sweeter than the relationship you got out of. Ra