In this garden

This is a place, a modest garden by the countryside, in the pre-Alps. We follow its evolution through the seasons. Every day, for 40 years, the couple who cultivate this plot of land, record the small and major events of the life of this garden, in order to always better adjust to it. What is weaving here? The changing weather, the passage of time, the growth of plants, the constantly repeated gestures; and again, the insects activity, the heady stridulations, the variations of light and wind...
The eye awakens to the sensitive world and is enchanted by the smallest moments of life. In this garden, a voice punctuates the film: it invokes the Angelus of Millet, the myth of Demeter, makes heard that of the poet Philippe Jaccottet.
The film invites us to dive into the depths of Time, in order to make ourselves fully present to the world.

  • Natacha Boutkevitch
    Director
  • Matthieu Lamotte
    Producer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    En ce jardin
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    58 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    France
  • Language:
    French
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Geo film festival
    Citadella
    Italy
    official selection
  • Faito doc festival
    Faito
    Italy
    official selection
Director Biography - Natacha Boutkevitch

After working as a photographer, I decided a few years ago to make films in the form of documentary essays. After having made a first feature film entitled "Quand le soleil quitte l'eau de l'herbe / Grazing the sunny grass", which deals with the relationship between man and animal through pastoralism, I have just finished the second one, "En ce jardin /In the garden" which speak about a couple of market gardeners taht have cultivated a small area by the countryside in the pre-Alps for 40 years. It evokes daily life and the triviality of events, but also speaks of the enchantment that comes from contemplating the nature over the seasons, and the the sensation of a "full presence" at the world. I am now preparing a film on the Alpine glaciers which will be, in a way, the third part of films made in the Alps.
Another part of my work is devoted to the question of memory, individual and collective memory: memory of places and "landscape history", family memory through the portrait of Marco lipszyc, a Polish emigrant, a figure of the resistance in the Vercors. I have too a project based on the history of my family, Polish by origin, who emigrated to Russia at the end of the 19th century and settled in France in the early 1920s.
I also collaborate on live performance projects through visual creations for shows.

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