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Standing ovation for The Tree in Cannes

Press release from Pop Culture

Transmission Films is proud to announce that the Australian/French co-production THE TREE received a rapturous standing ovation at its World Premiere last night, as the closing night film of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival.

Described by Variety as a “top-flight technical achievement for Aussie filmmaking” and “several grades above the norm for a Cannes closing-night selection,” THE TREE stars Charlotte Gainsbourg (who earlier in the day had presented the festivals top award, the Palme d’Or), Marton Csokas and Aden Young and is directed by French filmmaker Julie Bertuccelli, whose debut feature, Since Otar Left, won the Grand Prize, International Critics’ Week, at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Filmed entirely in Australia, it also features an astounding performance by 7 year old Morgana Davies and other young actors including Christian Byers, Gabriel Gotting and Tom Russell

The film is an adaptation of the novel Our Father Who Art in the Tree and explores the capacity of imagination as a means to survive and the unstoppable power of life asserting itself over sadness.

After the sudden death of her father, 8-year-old Simone shares a secret with her mother Dawn. She’s convinced her father speaks to her through the leaves of her favourite tree and he’s come back to protect them. But the new bond between mother and daughter is threatened when Dawn starts a relationship with George, the plumber, called in to remove the tree’s troublesome roots. As the branches of the tree start to infiltrate the house, the family is forced to make an agonising decision. But have they left it too late?

THE TREE is produced by Sue Taylor from Taylor Media in Perth and Yael Fogiel from Les Films Du Poisson and is expected in cinemas later in the year, after screening at both the Sydney and Melbourne International Film Festivals.