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)
“an impressive first feature”
‑ Sheri Linden (The Hollywood Reporter)
“extends, complicates, and enriches the definition of documentary”
‑ Melissa Anderson (Artforum)
“truly unconventional ethnography […] 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 Film Festival
Best Documentary Feature Award, Cine Las Americas International Film Festival
Grand Jury Honorable Mention, Miami International Film Festival
Nominee, Grand Jury Prize, Miami International Film Festival
2011 Nominee, Golden Leopard Award, Locarno International Film Festival
Nominee, Best Italian Documentary Film Award, Torino Film Festival
Screenings (selected)
2017 Vancouver Latin American Film Festival
Institute of Anthropology at East China Normal University
2013 Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid in Berlin
London Omnibus Sightlines
Muestra Itinerante de cine Iberoamericano iBértigo
2012 Los Angeles Film Festival
Ann Arbor Film Festival
Miami International Film Festival
Cinematheque108, USC School of Cinematic Arts
Cine Las Americas International Film Festival
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid in Paris
Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival
São Paulo International Film Festival
Jean Rouch International Ethnographic Film Festival
London Open City Documentary Festival
Art Gallery of Ontario
Copenhagen Husset’s Biograf
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
Doxa Documentary Film Festival
Rencontres de Toulouse Cinélatino
2011 Locarno International Film Festival
IDFA - Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival
Torino Film Festival, Turin
Montreal World Film Festival