EL ÁRBOL DE LAS FRESAS
(THE STRAWBERRY TREE)
Filmed in the remote hamlet of Juan Antonio, Cuba, only weeks before it was wiped out by a hurricane, El árbol de las fresas (The Strawberry Tree) challenges the boundaries between ethnography, documentary and reverie in capturing the final sigh of one of Cuba's last fishing villages. The villagers’ ingeniousness and resilience, as well as their playful and irreverent relationship with the filmmaker, render a sensitive portrait of a unique culture into a reflection on documentary filmmaking and on humanity on the edge of time.
“there's a deceptive simplicity to Simone Rapisarda Casanova's "The Strawberry Tree," which makes this highly considered p.o.v. especially refreshing”
‑ Jay Weissberg (Variety)
‑ Sheri Linden (The Hollywood Reporter)
“extends, complicates, and enriches the definition of documentary”
‑ Melissa Anderson (Artforum)
“a refined artistry; hard to capture in words”
‑ Mark Peranson (Cinema Scope)
“simply stunning”
‑ Ed Rampell (Variety)
“it reframes the usual filmmaker-film subject relationship”
‑ Christine Davila (IndieWire)
“formally precise”
‑ Stephen Connolly (Sight & Sound)
“incredibly moving”
‑ Norman Wilner (Now Magazine)
“redefining the very category of the ethnographic film”
‑ Michael Sicinski (The Academic Hack)
“beautifully composed”
‑ Doug Cummings (Los Angeles Weekly)
“utterly tantric”
‑ Ciara Lavelle (Miami New Times)
“a fascinating anthropological experiment of sorts”
‑ Clayton Davis (Awards Circuit)
“slyly masterful”
‑ Peter Goddard (The Toronto Star)
“an exquisite labour of love”
‑ Rowena Santos Aquino (Cinema Journal)
“ontological and bizarre”
‑ David Davidson (Toronto Film Review)
“a playful, formal, deeply respectful film, [...] stunningly beautiful”
‑ DOXA Jury Statement
“there's not really any description that can do it justice”
‑ Ben Platko (Cinema Sentries)
Made with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Créé avec le soutien du Conseil de Recherches en Sciences Humaines du Canada
Awards and Honours
2012 NFB Award for Most Innovative Canadian Documentary, DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Vancouver, Canada
Best Documentary Feature Award, Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, Austin, TX , USA
Grand Jury Honorable Mention, Miami International Film Festival, Miami, FL, USA
Nominee, Grand Jury Prize, Miami International Film Festival, Miami, FL, USA
2011 Nominee, Golden Leopard Award, Locarno International Film Festival, Locarno, Switzerland
Nominee, Best Italian Documentary Film Award, Torino Film Festival, Turin, Italy
Screenings (selected)
2017 Vancouver Latin American Film Festival, Vancouver, Canada
Institute of Anthropology, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
2013 Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid - New Cinema and contemporary art, Berlin, Germany
Omnibus Sightlines, London, UK
Muestra Itinerante de cine Iberoamericano iBértigo, Spain
2012 Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Miami International Film Festival, Miami, FL, USA
Cinematheque108, USC School of Cinematic Arts, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, Austin, TX, USA
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid - New Cinema and contemporary art, Paris, France
Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival, Guangzhou, China
São Paulo International Film Festival, São Paulo, Brazil
Jean Rouch International Ethnographic Film Festival, Paris, France
London Open City Documentary Festival, London, UK
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Husset’s Biograf, Copenhagen, Denmark
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece
Doxa Documentary Film Festival, Vancouver, Canada
Cinélatino, Rencontres de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
2011 Locarno International Film Festival, Locarno, Switzerland
IDFA - Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Torino Film Festival, Turin, Italy
Montreal World Film Festival, Montreal, Canada