Dir. Julie Bertuccelli, France/Australia/Germany /Italy, 2010, Dur. 101 mins
Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Morgana Davies, Marton Csokas
Review by Carlie Newman
The O’Neills are a close, loving family living a happy life in rural Queensland, Australia. Suddenly disaster strikes and their lives are shattered, when the father has a heart attack without warning while driving his truck. His wife Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) finds it difficult to recover from her all-embracing sadness when he dies. She cannot cope with looking after her four young children. She can barely get out of bed to feed and dress the smallest, Charlie (little Gabriel Gotting), who is so traumatised by the loss of his dad that he will not speak.
The 8-year-old, Simone (Morgana Davies), who was particularly close to her father, finds her own way of coping with the loss. She, along with her mother, believes that her father whispers to her through the leaves of the amazing Moreton Bay fig tree, whose giant roots reach out to their home. Simone finds comfort in being able to communicate with her father. But when Dawn becomes more intimate with George (Marton Csokas), her new employer, the tree seems to show a more malevolent side. As its branches infiltrate the house, Simone is so scared that that the tree will be cut down that she protests by setting up house high up in the branches.
Apparently more than 200 girls auditioned for the part of Simone before Morgana (then aged 7) was chosen. She is the star of the film and shines with such potential that she seems sure to develop into an adult actress of merit. Gainsbourg’s face is always very watchable and here she portrays the anguish of a woman, who loses her friend and husband so suddenly that she is unable to cope with day-to-day existence, even though she has four children to care for.
All the children have their individual characteristics and deal with the death of their father in different ways. While the eldest, Tim (Christian Byers), a teenager, keeps his grief clenched up tight, he knows that he needs to become the man of the house and he takes on this role. There is one further character in this movie and that is the giant fig tree itself, which dominates not only the house but also the lives of all the characters.
Director Julie Bertuccelli, who directed the excellent film about memories, Since Otar Left, manages to tread the delicate path between spirituality and realism. Filmed in Australia by a French director, we get a real feel for the country, both its tranquility and, in the character of the tree, the hazards of nature. It is beautifully shot by Nigel Bluck. Bertuccelli has made a very moving drama about loss, recovery and people getting on with their lives. This is made even more tragic when we know that the background is that the director’s own husband, and the father of her two children, died while the film was being set up.
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