Anna Maguire, Hamza Haq, Veena Sood, Donna Benedicto, and Arghavan Jenati star in the dystopian romance drama film With Love and a Major Organ.
Based on a stage play by Julia Lederer, the film is set in an alternate reality in which all human individuality and emotion has been suppressed by technological mediation. Anna Maguire plays an artist who is one of the few remaining people who still experience a world of individuality and emotion.
Release Date
Directed by Kim Albright, With Love and a Major Organ world premiered at the 2023 South by Southwest film festival, followed by the Canadian premiere at Fantasia Film Festival; and opens in theaters on March 29, 2024.
Synopsis
In a world where everyone’s heart is an object and there’s a strong societal pressure to dampen emotion, lonely Virtual Insurance broker Anabel (Anna Maguire, Violation, The Hummingbird Project) always follows her heart. At odds with this overly pragmatic society, and after a series of devastating emotional blows, she rips her heart from her chest and gives it to a man she’s fallen for, the strangely unfeeling George (Hamza Haq, NBC’s Transplant). Unburdened by her unique yet cumbersome heart, Anabel finds life easier. George, on the other hand, begins to feel everything, to the shock of his overbearing mother, Mona. Anabel soon realizes she needs to get her heart back if she’s going to survive.
Reviews
ScreenAnarchy review gave high marks to the performances, writing, “Maguire and Haq turn in finely tuned performances, essentially switching places halfway through the film in terms of the emotional timbre of their characters. It’s fun to see an actor given the freedom to exercise this kind of range over the course of a single film, and both handle the task beautifully. The way they manifest joy and sadness with equal facility is satisfying to watch, you can their attributes flowing from one to the other, the joy and wonder of following one’s heart and the despair that sets in upon losing it.”
Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for With Love and a Major Organ