Synopsis
A powerful man, who is also the former prime minister of Georgia, has developed an exquisite hobby. He collects century-old trees along Georgia’s coastline. He commissions his men to uproot them and bring them to his private garden. Some of these trees are as tall as 15-floor buildings. And in order to transplant a tree of such dimensions some other trees are chopped down, electric cables are shifted and new roads are paved through mandarin plantations. The film moves the concept of uprooting from its metaphorical meaning into an oppressive, tangible, and yet surreal reality.
A word from Tënk
We will never hear the name or see the face of the mad gardener at work in this film. Let's just note that he is the richest person in Georgia, which once allowed him to lead a coalition of political parties called "Georgian Dream" and to briefly serve as the country’s Prime Minister. His most recent Georgian Dream is a dystopia, not typically Georgian, as it resembles what many other ultra-rich people on the planet have accustomed us to, by disfiguring landscapes for their sole pleasure. Original, this particular ultra-rich locates the most beautiful and the highest trees of the country, has them uprooted and replanted in his domain on the heights of Tbilisi.
Salome Jashi contrasts the vulgarity of the ultra-rich with the elegance and sobriety of her static shots and long takes. If the camera moves, it is to stay as close as possible to the hallucinatory and bereaved procession of the inhabitants who accompany the tree that is being stolen from them. The Faustian bargain that has just been struck - they were promised roads and jobs in exchange for their finest trees - leaves them dazed, as we are, caught between the beauty of the images of these trees and people and the ferocity of the sounds of the machines that are tearing them down and ravaging them.
Emanuel Licha
Filmmaker and teacher
