:: Exclusive Advance Screening of Cannes Film Festival Closer THE TREE

By: Carmine Pascuzzi

The Gold Coast Film Festival will host an exclusive once only film screening of THE TREE on Wednesday September 22 at 6.30pm at Australia Fair Birch Carroll and Coyle Cinemas on the Gold Coast.

Fans and cinefiles can purchase tickets for $12 from Australia Fair cinemas as of September 8. Tickets will also be available for sale on the night if not sold out prior. The screening is the final quarterly event screening which forms the Gold Coast Film Festival Sneak Peek program. The Sneak Peek program is one event screening per quarter before the actual film festival on November 10-16. The earlier Sneak Peeks this year were DAYBREAKERS and KINGS OF MYKONOS:WOG BOY 2.

THE TREE stars Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist, Jane Eyre), Martin Csokas (Alice in Wonderland, The Bourne Supremacy), Morgana Davies and Aden Young (Black Robe, Mao's Last Dancer) and was the closing night film of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

After the sudden death of her father, 8-year old Simone shares a secret with her mother Dawn. She's convinced her father speaks to her through the leaves of her favourite tree and he's come back to protect them. But the new bond between mother and daughter is threatened when dawn starts a relationship with George, the plumber, called in to remove the tree's troublesome roots. As the branches of the tree start to infiltrate the house, the family is forced to make and agonising decision. But have they left it too late?

Director Julie Berticcelli says that while the story deals with death, it shows how grief can be used to take people to new places beyond their sadness. She said, “I think it is very interesting to see how when there are terrible things happening around you, you don't just have to be sad but that it is possible to take that and invent something else..to create something with that sadness, to try to be an artists with it.”

The tree itself - a towering Morton Bay Fig on a property near Boonah in south-east Queensland - is the founding, central character: powerful, magnificent, and enchanting, full of poetry and mystery.

“This is a great opportunity for Gold Coasters to see an advance screening of the film that closed this year's Cannes Film Festival. And it was shot right here in south-east Queensland! The GCFF is only doing one screening and I encourage people to get their tickets early.” Casey Marshall Siemer, Festival Director.

The Gold Coast Film Festival presented by Australia Fair Shopping Centre, will be held November 10-16, 2010 at Australia Fair Birch Carroll and Coyle Cinemas in Southport. Gold Coast City Council's Film Gold Coast is the major Government sponsor of the event.

The full program of films and events will be launched in October. For more details please see here