Directed by Julie Bertucelli
Australian films have often delved into the co-existence of nature and culture and French director Julie Bertucelli uses rural Australia to set her adaptation of Judy Pascoe’s novel ‘Our Father Who Art in the Tree’. The opening scene is a house being transported on the back of a truck down a dusty road and central to the drama is an enormous Moreton Bay Fig tree whose branches reach towards the sky and roots stretch over the ground. Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and Peter O’Neill (Aden Young) live with their four children next to the tree which is larger than the house. When Peter crashes his car into the tree and dies, the tree offers an unusual form of solace to Dawn and her eight year old daughter Simone (Morgana Davies).
Reminiscent of Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, the cinematography uses the play of light and shadow to bring out the primeval power of the tree. According to Bertucelli, the film tells of ‘the strength of imagination, of invention as a means to survive and the unstoppable power of life asserting itself over sadness’. But the tree begins to dominate the physical and emotional lives of the females in the house and when plumber George (Marton Csokas) has to remove some of the tree’s troublesome roots; it is as if the tree is fighting back. Branches and roots start to overtake the house as Dawn and Simone try to hold onto their memories while moving forward with their lives.
Selected as the closing night film for the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, this French/Australian co-production received a seven minute standing ovation. Meet Sue Taylor, the WA producer of The Tree, at a Q&A event at Luna Cinemas in Leederville on Thursday 23 September that will take place after the 6.30pm screening of the film.
Lezly Herbert
