Taglines: Life is a force of nature.
The exquisite Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist, I’m Not There) stars in French filmmaker Julie Bertuccelli’s achingly beautiful follow-up to her sleeper hit Since Otar Left.
The Closing Night Film at Cannes in 2010, The Tree is a mystical drama of loss and rebirth in the Australian countryside. Not since classic 1970s works Picnic at Hanging Rock and Walkabout has the harshly gorgeous outback landscape been such a lyrical yet foreboding metaphor for grief and coming of age.
Blindsided with anguish after her husband’s sudden death, Dawn (Gainsbourg)–along with her four young children–struggles to make sense of life without him. Eight-year-old Simone (unforgettable newcomer Morgana Davies) becomes convinced that her father is whispering to her through the leaves of the gargantuan fig tree that towers over their house. The family is initially comforted by its presence, but then the tree’s enormous roots slowly begin to encroach on the abode and threaten their fragile existence.
The Tree is a French-Australian 2010 film co-produced between Australia and France. It was filmed in the small town of Boonah[2] in Queensland, Australia and follows the lives of Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her four children after the unexpected death of her husband Peter (Aden Young).
The film is an adaptation of the debut novel Our Father Who Art in The Tree by Australian writer and performer Judy Pascoe. The film closed the Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2010 following the Awards Ceremony and received a seven-minute standing ovation. As well as this, The Tree premiered at the 2010 Sydney Film Festival. The film is distributed in the U.S. by Zeitgeist Films, opening on 15 July 2011 in New York, on 22 July in Los Angeles, Boston and Washington, D.C., and throughout the country over the summer.
The Tree
Directed by: Julie Bertuccelli
Starring: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Morgana Davies, Marton Csokas, Christian Byers, Tom Russell, Aden Young
Screenplay by: Judy Pascoe, Julie Bertuccelli, Elizabeth J. Mars
Production Design by: Steven Jones-Evans
Cinematography by: Nigel Bluck
Film Editing by: François Gédigier
Costume Design by: Joanna Mae Park
Set Decoration by: Nicki Gardiner
Art Direction by: Janie Parker
Music by: Grégoire Hetzel
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
Release Date: October 14, 2010
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