ITALY
2024 – DCP – color – 60’

Direction: Serena Porta

Screenplay: Corrado Azzollini

Cinematography: Luca La Vopa

Editing: Claudio D’Elia

Music: Kekko Fornarelli

Narrator: Russell Crowe (eng); Luca Ward (ita)

Producer: Corrado Azzollini

Production: Draka Production con il contributo di with contribution from Apulia Film Commission

Distribution: Draka Distribution

SYNOPSIS

The baobabs of Africa and the olive trees of southern Italy depict an ancestral symbiosis and fearsome destiny that for millennia have intertwined these two majestic trees with mankind and its history. Religious beliefs and legends keep them at the center of ancient symbols and rituals. The richness of their fruits and countless uses, that communities have found under the shade of their mighty branches, render them precious and irreplaceable. Today, their gradual decline tragically unites them even more as victims of climate change caused by the very same man who has continuously relied on them for sustenance. Russell Crowe’s evocative narration leads us in discovering the common thread that connects these “silent masters” and the two continents that shelter them: Africa and Europe. As majestic witnesses to stories of pain and resilience, fragility and power, these great trees together sound an environmental alarm that can no longer be ignored.

Director’s statement

“Two stories in one, calling all of us to admire and respect the land that has given us life. The olive tree and the baobab, the only witnesses of their past, silently cry out their fear. They have journeyed through the centuries without moving, companions of a thousand seasons, always alive within the scars of their bark. They allow themselves to be scrutinized, permitting you to enter their trunks to the depths of their souls, without feeling uncomfortable as you spend hours exploring them. Has this made the story easier to tell? Not at all. I observed them and listened to them patiently, aware that a tree reveals its secrets slowly, and with them, tells yet another story, our own.”

world premiere

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