Like the murmur of the branches and leaves, "The Tree" will move you silently, quietly, with a powerfully grounding force of nature. "We're going to miss him for as long as we live. But we are going to have to learn to live with that", Charlotte Gainsbourg's Dawn, the widow and mother of four, tells her 8-year old daughter Simone (beautifully rendered by the little Morgana Davies), who confidently and fatalistically responds with a "No". It's easy to fall into metaphoric cliches about the tree, with its roots, its protective powers, its endless branches, its comparison to life's strength and fragility. "The Tree" slowly translates visually and aurally all these concepts, without even a taste or a hint of a cliche. It is a meditation on loss and grief, showing how imagination has the power to lift us through the pain and darkness. And that they are only imaginations to the outsiders, but are grounded reality for the believes because they might be the only real connection to the other world. This film is like a whisper, best watched with the humming background of sea waves and pine tree movements, in the company of closest family.
