A wildly inventive new French comedy from Quentin Dupieux, Smoking Causes Coughing follows the misadventures of a team of five superheroes known as the Tobacco Force - Benzene (Gilles Lellouche), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra). After a devastating battle against a diabolical giant turtle, the Tobacco Force is sent on a mandatory week-long retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their sojourn goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth.
Filmmaker Quentin Dupieux was born in France and directed, shot, edited and scored his feature debut, Steak in 2017. Next came the absurdist horror Rubber (2010), and the comedy Wrong. Further director credits include Wrong Cops (2012), Reality (2014), Keep an Eye Out (2018) starring Benoît Poelvoorde and Grégoire Ludig, Deerskin (2019) starring Jean Dujardin and Adèle Haenel, and Mandibles (2021), starring Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais.