43. Taming The Garden; movie review

 

TAMING THE GARDEN

Cert 15

91 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong language

I'm a newsman. I love brilliantly told tales. Regardless of their platform, I want them to leave the audience with no unanswered questions.

Taming The Garden has the foundation of a most bizarre, fascinating and true story.

It also had access to almost all of the key participants despite its controversial subject matter.

But it requires a heap of background knowledge for the viewer to understand what is going on and, even then, extra reading is needed to join all of its dots.

This is because its makers concentrated more on how the film looks than its narrative.

In simple terms Salomé Jashi's film is about a former minister of Georgia who is so rich that he can fulfil a passion - for collecting century-old trees.

He commissions teams to uproot them, transport them down roads and across the sea to his very elaborate private garden.

This is an incredibly complex operation, given that some of the trees are as tall as 15-storey buildings and removing them leaves deep scars across the Georgian countryside.

A few conversations between landowners and removal experts reflect what ordinary people think of the billionaire's strange obsession but the former PM is not in the film to fully explain it.

Instead, the focus is on the painstaking job of digging up the trees and making sure they don't die before being installed in the billionaire's garden.

It is a film which shows that money can pay for every whim, however bizarre.

But it needs to be more explicit over what it is trying to stay - just leaving conclusions up to the viewer's imagination can be empowering but is usually frustrating.

The latter is the case here.

Reasons to watch: Bizarre true story of a leader's excesses

Reasons to avoid: It is very slow in more ways than one

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 5/10

Did you know? The Shekvetili Dendrological Park, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, also includes pink flamingoes, pelicans and other exotic birds.

The final word. Salomé Jashi: "Somehow, we were let in. I think one reason is also that they were proud of what they were doing, lifting over 1,000-ton trees with their roots and soil, and carrying them over land and sea. They were happy to exhibit how exceptional the work was." Cineuropa

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