IDFA 2021: Taming The Garden (Best of Fests) | Review

With “Taming The Garden,” filmmaker Salomé Jashi delivers a visually stunning, observational, and entertaining fable that examines the human and local consequences of a single man’s Promethean ambition to defy nature.

The events unfold in Georgia near the Black Sea, where a powerful anonymous man has acquired a number of old trees to be removed from the ground and transported to the sea, where they will be shipped to his privately owned island, where he has been building a garden for himself.

Filmmaker Salomé Jashi could have chosen an infinite number of ways to tell this story. In “Taming The Garden,” she presents a fascinating tale that, through the use of direct cinema, encompasses a wide range of perspectives.

Initially, the director immerses us in the daily lives of the group of workers who have undertaken the task of removing the old trees acquired by the wealthy anonymous figure. Quickly, we discern the complexity of this immense project, which proves to be a serious challenge involving a long-term endeavor. The director successfully conveys the idea that this ambitious, unusual, eccentric project aims to defy nature. Through the use of direct cinema and stunning steady shots, the director crafts a truly spectacular cinematic experience that is also profoundly poetic and metaphoric. The mechanical digger appears threatening, and its rumbling stomach makes it resemble a true breathing monster.

With impressive mastery, Salomé Jashi then shifts her focus to the inhabitants of the village, where we understand that the wealthy anonymous figure’s project has sparked a lively debate among the population. In a beautiful, subtle mosaic, the director manages to share multiple villagers’ perspectives. Everyone comments on the event, becomes concerned, and voices their opinion. Some denounce the pretentiousness of a single man willing to spend as much money as needed to remove some one-hundred-year-old trees and transport them to his own island, while others praise this wealthy figure for building a new road to transport his newly acquired trees, which, in the end, will benefit the entire community. Meanwhile, some older villagers regret seeing such pieces of their lives and memories being uprooted and taken away from them. It proves very satisfying and interesting to see how one man’s whim breaks down into an infinite chain of smaller problems and questioning for the people in the community.

What is particularly clever and relevant in “Taming The Garden” is that the director never shows the wealthy acquirer of the trees. He is mainly referred to as “he” by the villagers and never appears on screen. This anonymization of the character makes the topic more universal. And the question arises: can money buy anything? Can one man have the power to defy nature?

The film culminates in showing surreal images of a gigantic old tree being transported with two trucks progressing very slowly in front of the eyes of a curious crowd of villagers. We knew of “the tree that was hiding the forest,” but this time what we witness is a tree literally leaving the forest. For instance, a wonderful traveling shot follows the convoy, not aiming at the tree, but at the villagers walking alongside it, giving us a sense of how this event impacts the very lives of the village’s inhabitants.

Overall, this tale is brilliantly crafted by Director Salomé Jashi, who portrays the consequences of a single man’s pretentiousness in defying the environment.