The second feature film from Julie Bertucelli, acclaimed director of Since Otar Left, The Tree stars award-winning actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, newcomer Morgana Davies, and is based
on the much-loved Australian novel, Oh Father Who Art in the Tree by Judy Pascoe.
Dawn (Gainsbourg) and Peter live together with their children in the Australian countryside. In the middle of their garden stands the kids' favorite playground : a massive Moreton Bay Fig tree, whose branches reach high towards the sky and roots stretch far into the ground.
One day, Peter dies of a heart attack, crashing his car into the tree trunk. Dawn is left alone with her grief and four children to raise. All of them naturally go looking for comfort under their protective tree, which becomes even more present in their lives. The young daughter, Simone (Davies), thinking that her late father whispers to her through the leaves, settles in the tree and refuses to climb down from it. But as the tree is growing unusually big - branches infiltrating the house, roots destroying the foundations, the family will need to make an excruciating decision to be able to go on with their lives...
The Tree stars actress and musician Charlotte Gainsbourg whose previous credits include Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 Grams, Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There, Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep and Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, for which she received the Best Actress Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.