Taming the Garden

The second feature-length documentary from Georgian filmmaker Salomé Jashi, whose 2016 debut feature The Dazzling Light of Sunset received critical acclaim and several awards. 

Taming the Garden depicts a powerful man, the former prime minister of Georgia, who has developed an exquisite hobby. He collects century old trees along Georgia’s coastline. He commissions his men to uproot them and bring them to his private garden. Some of these trees are as tall as 15-floor-buildings. And in order to transplant a tree of such dimensions some other trees are chopped down, electric cables are shifted and new roads are paved through mandarin plantations. 

The film moves the concept of uprooting from its metaphorical meaning into an oppressive, tangible and yet surreal reality.