FADIA'S TREE

a film by Sarah Beddington

SYNOPSIS

While millions of birds migrate freely in the skies, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, yearns for the ancestral homeland she is denied. She challenges Sarah, the Director, to find an ancient mulberry tree that stands as witness to her family’s existence — with only inherited memories, a blind man and a two-headed dragon as her guides. Along the way, Sarah meets with ornithologists whose observations on the homing instincts of the birds highlight the unresolved problems of the region.

Spanning fifteen years, this story of a friendship that stays connected across a divided land and a fragmented people adopts a birds’ eye perspective to reflect on freedom of movement, exile and the hope of return.

Synopsis

An impressionistic portrait of the region’s troubled history, along with a quiet meditation on the role home plays in shaping who we are.

ALISTAIR HARKNESS, THE SCOTSMAN

What elevates Fadia's Tree isn't just the connections it makes. It is how gracefully it makes them...

DANNY LEIGH, FINANCIAL TIMES

The universal question it prompts will rattle around in your psyche for quite some time afterwards.

JEREMY CLARKE, JEREMY C PROCESSING

WATCH THE TRAILER

Play Video

Trailer

Reviews

REVIEWS

A study of displacement with airborne grace notes.

LEILA LATIF, SIGHT AND SOUND

A film that sets anger and to some extent politics to one side in favour of a sombre and supportive emotional portrait.

PETER BRADSHAW, THE GUARDIAN

Following directions from a blind man, and weaving in studies of migratory birds, Beddington's journey carries a potent symbolic weight.

WENDY IDE, THE OBSERVER

Combines personal testimony, historical explanation and natural history to create something quite remarkable.

CHRISTIAN LISSEMAN, BIG ISSUE NORTH

Fadia’s Tree is a very beautiful film: You emerge into the light with your understanding intensified, feeling perhaps a little altered. It both tells a personal story and presents a political narrative by delicate metaphor, never harangues, is elegantly paced, and very timely.

JAMES WOODALL, JOURNALIST AND WRITER

I felt compelled to create a brand new judging criteria for this film because it showed me something so extraordinary about a subject matter I thought I knew quite well.

MAYTHEM RIDHA,

AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER AND FESTIVAL JUROR

A poetic meditation on exile and return.

SELMA DABBAGH, ELECTRONIC INTAFADA