Feature Film

Synopsis

Dawn and Peter O’Neil live together with their children, on the outskirts of a small country town. Next to their rambling house stands the kids' favourite playground : a giant Moreton Bay Fig tree, whose branches reach high towards the sky and roots stretch far into the ground.

Everything seems perfect until Peter suffers a fatal heart attack, crashing his car into the tree trunk. Dawn is left alone with her grief and four children to raise. All of them intuitively go looking for comfort under their protective tree, which increasingly dominates their physical and emotional landscape.

One day, the daughter, eight-year-old Simone, reveals a secret to her mother. She’s convinced Peter whispers to her through the leaves of the tree and he’s come back to protect them.

But the close bond between mother and daughter, forged through mutual sorrow and their shared secret, is threatened when Dawn starts a new relationship with George, the plumber, called in to remove the tree’s troublesome roots.

Simone moves into the tree, refusing to come down until the relationship ends. 

But as the tree continues to grow – its branches infiltrating the house and its roots destroying the foundations - the family needs to make an agonising, but ultimately liberating, decision.

The Tree explores the capacity of imagination as a means to survive and the unstoppable power of life asserting itself over sadness.

Written and directed by Julie Bertuccelli renowned for her award winning debut feature, Since Otar Left, The Tree is adapted from the novel Our Father Who Art In The Tree, by Australian author Judy Pascoe.

With Cannes award winning actress, Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist, I'm Not There) in the lead role of Dawn, The Tree also stars Australian actors Marton Csokas (Romulus, My Father, Lord of the Rings, Alice In Wonderland) and Aden Young (Mao's Last Dancer, Lucky Country).