A mysterious millionaire is buying 100-year-old trees along the Georgian coastline to replant in a private garden far away along the Black Sea. Fascinating and too bizarre to be missed, the methodical process of digging up a tree as tall as a 15-storey building is simply staggering. Filmmaker Salomé Jashi captures both the painstaking detail and mammoth scale of this ludicrous project. As teams of men set about each Herculean dig, local villagers whisper about why, at what cost and whose permission was bought to indulge this extravagance. While some towns are simply happy to finally get the long-promised roads and power lines required for the work, others wonder what the real cost of this privately funded, forced migration might be. As odd and otherworldly as the scheme itself, this fascinating study of entitlement offers a most modern look at privilege. Myrocia Watamaniuk
The Changing Face of Europe program presented in partnership with
La Consulat général de Suisse à Montreal supports Swiss films at Hot Docs
