Mabel centers on Callie, whose only friends are the plants and trees that surround her home. When her dad’s job moves the family to a sterile subdivision, she is utterly isolated—except for her best friend, a potted plant named Mabel. To Callie, Mabel is a peer, a fellow being, maybe overlooked or unseen, but still very much alive.
Acting
Lexi Perkel carries the whole film with plant-whispering conviction.
Direction
Nicholas Ma finds poetry in empty cul-de-sacs.
Director
Nicholas Ma
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Mabel prop was a real pothos plant that the production team kept alive for the entire shoot—apparently it's now thriving in director Nicholas Ma's apartment.
The sterile subdivision was shot in an actual new development where trees were legally required to be a certain diameter—Callie's horror is literally built into municipal code.
US
