THE STORY – Novelist Darya returns to her hometown with her daughter to work on her new book. There she is haunted by the memory of twin girls from her childhood, and the two trees planted as their memorials.
THE CAST – Eva Green, Murat Yildirim, Lucas Akoskin, Zeynep Çamci & Neva Kuş
THE TEAM – Bahman Ghobadi (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 106 Minutes
In “Trees are Watching,” acclaimed Iranian Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi (“Turtles Can Fly,” “A Time for Drunken Horses”) interprets the relationship between humanity and nature as a psychological haunt. As the film’s epigraph reads, trees are not silent. Some believe that trees perceive and absorb their surroundings, carrying the energy of old spirits. Perhaps trees are nature’s revenge for mass deforestation, crying out through whispering creaks and grumbles. These beliefs set the tone for a supernatural Kurdish folklore story, one that Ghobadi uses to immerse you into the unnerving sights and sounds of environmental destruction.
On paper, Eva Green battling a possessed wooden chair sounds deliriously entertaining. The concept very well could have fit into the Midnight Madness programming bill at the Toronto International Film Festival. On screen, Ghobadi takes this conceit far more seriously, to convey the tragedy of a reincarnated life. Set in the city of Mardin in southeastern Turkey, the film’s opening moments introduce us to young Nihal, who was raised to believe that when people die, they come back to life as trees. Nihal also grew up afraid of using the bathroom on her own. According to folklore, all toilets had the reincarnated spirits of evil mothers. Surrounded by skepticism from her sister Spin and their schoolmate Darya, Nihal descended into a lonely living nightmare, one that has haunted Darya into adulthood.
Eva Green plays the adult version of Darya, a novelist consumed by the spiritual relationship between humans and trees. Eager to immerse herself deeper into the subject, Darya returns to Mardin for research, taking her deaf daughter (Neva Kuş) and the family dog along for the journey. As painful memories of sisters Nihal and Spin bleed into the present day, Darya’s homecoming morphs into a psychological reckoning. Intergenerational trauma takes the form of possessed timber, forcing Darya to confront the past and reconcile with her own internal conflict.
At first, the film excels at crafting atmospheric tension around this malevolent chair. Ominous camera movements pick up on subtle energy shifts and build suspense, underscored by the dog’s constant barking and chewing. The visuals work best when there’s room left for imagination. We can project the thought of knowing there’s a human spirit trapped within, and part of the intrigue lies in wondering how this stationary threat will manifest in front of the characters. But the visual conceit falls apart when we see the chair in motion. Watching it drag across rooms and be brought into a police station for investigation crosses over into silly humor, and it’s unclear whether the film is aiming for that comedic relief. There’s of course a suspension of disbelief that comes with this concept, but it’s played with a deadpan seriousness that distracts from the psychological dread woven into Darya’s character. The sonic language has a similarly underwhelming effect, starting off strong with eerie parallels between tree-cutting and the sounds of human screaming. It’s a compelling way of clueing into the ecological destruction that Ghobadi’s film explores. However, the familiar horror genre staple of high-pitched string instruments is heavily overused, to the point where it disrupts focus on the story.
The film works best when exploring supernatural dread through Nihal’s perspective. Her palpable terror grounds the increasingly spooky elements, and her unexpected fate casts a haunting shadow over the present-day timeline. Highlighting Nihal’s childhood alongside her sister Spin is also compelling. The film deftly conveys them as wise beyond their years, carrying the weight of their circumstances and a fractured relationship between their parents. However, the script falls flat when it comes to exploring the characters’ inner worlds. This lack of depth extends to the film’s heavy-handed messaging around mental illness, which reduces the girls’ mother to an evil mom caricature. It’s a tired trope that reduces what could have been a complex psychological battle to a one-note villain.
The least interesting perspective is the one “Trees are Watching” prioritizes most. Eva Green delivers a commendable performance with limiting material, and excels at leaning into the tragic notes of the film’s surreal supernatural elements. Though, the film’s attempt to frame her character through psychological distress falls flat. It succumbs to a clichéd “it’s all in her head” trope in the final act, making it tricky to really connect on an emotional level. While the narrative roots of “Trees are Watching” are compelling, Ghobadi’s fresh concept about nature’s spirits ultimately clashes with uneven execution.
