"Physical reality is placed in the basis of the cinema and cinema material is reality captured on film” (Siegfried Kracauer). These words once again emphasize how important it is to reflect objective reality in documentary cinema. It should be descriptive, seek an important, real problem, show and consolidate facts and bring the "real reality" to the audience.
Modern Georgian documentary cinema is experiencing a clear progress, because the works of recent years are significantly valuable for history, which is accompanied by the visual synthesis that documentary cinema experiences. The image became more poetic, along with the main theme, the aesthetic side took a big place, there were expressive shots that fit the theme depicted in the film.
For documentarians, among many other topics, the relationship between nature and man, their harmonious or disharmonious life, quiet conversation with it, union and division, is a favorite research material. The technological revolution, the growth of people's desires made the situation miserable. The directors actively explore the search for ways to solve the problem, the depiction of a catastrophic situation, the display of the lost face of nature, and the negative consequences of human actions.
An important film in terms of the relationship between man and nature is Salome Jashi’s work, "Taming the Garden" (2021). Its plot tells about the "wish" of the former Prime Minister – in 2018-2019, he dug up 200 hundred-year-old trees from different settlements of Georgia along with their roots and transplanted them in one area. This desire may even seem unbelievable. Does anyone in this world have the strength to move rooted trees here and there? This is impossible, however, in this case, the desire is greater than the ability. The main idea of the film is the natural cataclysms caused by forced displacement of trees. All trees are different and therefore need different conditions to exist, just as specific places need these trees.
A lot of time is spent on the technical side of this process. Due to the non-existent experience of this issue in the world, a group of engineers developed an innovative method, which is achieved at the cost of damaging the relief – the earth around the tree should be cut, pipes should be laid in the roots, wrapped and excavated.
The director focuses not only on the journey of one particular tree, but also on the damage caused by transportation. In order to move one huge tree, hundreds of other trees are destroyed, forests are cut down, roads are specially built in uncharted areas. In one of the shots of the film, we can see chopped plants, which were killed by the transfer of the "important." Here the author develops an interesting idea – how are hundreds of plants balanced which were destroyed because of one? How can a wish be genuine if its fulfillment causes a huge sacrifice.
In addition to trees, the object of interest of "Taming the Garden" is the population, people who rejected natural factors in exchange for money. Although some families look at this event with humor, the film does not leave a feeling of lightness. On the contrary, this humor is as heavy as the consequences of endless tree-sliding. People never imagined that a tree could bring them financial benefits. The director does not judge those who sold the tree, because, as in many other cases, they did not avoid rudely interfering with nature for their own well-being. Beyond self and well-being there is fertile ground for the emergence of natural paradoxes. A tree is a kind of heritage, which is passed down to different generations.
A tree swimming idly in the vast blue is aesthetically pleasing and ominous at the same time. Swimming trees? What other incredible sight should one see? Where is the line between possible and impossible? What can a person no longer do? Or rather, what else should a person do? Centuries have shown us that whatever you bring to nature, it will give back to you in the same way, and we still do not allow ourselves to subjugate and tame the wild nature.
The course of the film does not reflect only one side of the story. In this case, Salome Jashi is only an observer and does not try to draw conclusions, does not call the audience to anything specific and does not direct their perceptions to anything.
In one of the shots of the movie, you can see how the tree is slowly being moved by the lorries and how the residents are following it. People bid farewell to the tree that has stood in their village since time immemorial with mixed emotions. The slow march of the tree and the people chasing it remind us of the ritual of the funeral of the dead, the process of seeing off on the last road.
The finale shows the trees gathered in a dendrological park, still feeling alien. Attached with special levers, forced into the ground, they are already where they "should be." The idea may be really important and necessary, but the severity of the process undermines any results.
One of the important features of documentary cinema is that the content should not be pretentious, the director should not present us as a simple exponent of history. As an author, he should be concerned about the specific event he intends to photograph. Despite the fact that she is an observer, in Salome Jashi's film, there is no distance between the author and the subject. You can see her views on the topic and her inner perceptions, where the environment is interesting, first of all, and then the person in this environment.
Pleasant changes can be observed in modern Georgian documentary cinema, both in terms of expressiveness and content. Documentary cinema has the power to experience a pleasant synthesis with artistic visual and plot angles, and "Taming the Garden", from this point of view, creates a tone of revitalization of Georgian documentary cinema.
Eva Gvritishvili
