Lavender as a Symbol of Queerness, Environment, and Migration in Futur Drei/No Hard Feelings (2020)’s Scenes of Utopia
Keywords:
Futur Drei, No Hard Feelings, German Film, German Studies, Faraz Shariat, Queer Identity, sexuality of plants, plant-human symbiosis, vegetality, immigration, kinship, Germany, climate justice, queer plantsAbstract
This essay explores the trance-like scene near the end of Futur Drei/No Hard Feelings (2020), where the three protagonists imagine an alternate present and future where they are not limited as judged by their sexuality, race, or immigration status. The German-language film follows the interconnected lives of three ethnically Iranian young adults (Parvis, Amon, and Banafshe) that live in Hildesheim, Germany. In the final trance-like scene, the trio imagines their version of a utopia—a place where they are free to be their full, true selves and live without fear of deportation or homophobia. This essay engages with existing scholarship about queerness of plants, applying these texts to a film underexplored in academic writing, and argues that the lavender in the utopian sequence is a key symbol of queer identity, climate action, and open immigration.
