‘Taming the Garden - Salomé Jashi’

Three important German film festivals are guests in Brussels every year: the Berlinale Forum, DOK Leipzig and Duisburger Filmwoche. From this year's Berlinale Forum programme we present, among others, Taming the Garden by Salomé Jashi. Following the screening, the director will be available for an online film discussion.

An old tree with a magnificent crown floats across the sea. What sounds like a surrealist painting is one of the most captivating images in Salomé Jashi’s Taming the Garden. Captivating and ambivalent in equal measure, because transporting the tree forms part of a ludicrous project. An extremely wealthy and politically powerful man collects old trees, which he has dug out and brought to his garden. There is controversial discussion among those watching about why he does it and what they should make of it. Simply because he can afford such an eccentric hobby perhaps? As absurd as the transplanting of the trees appears, it is very much a sign of power, unabashed wealth and the conquest of nature. (Anna Hoffmann) 

After studying journalism, Salomé Jashi completed a degree in documentary film. Taming the Garden is her second feature-length film following her award-winning debut The Dazzling Light of Sunset (2016).