Where the Trees Bear Meat – Films

Donde los arboles dan carne

Alexis Franco
Argentina, Spain, United States | 2024 | 72 min
World premiere
Language : Spanish
Subtitles : English, French

In the Argentine Pampas, life seems to be on hold. A prolonged drought is killing off the livestock and threatening the existence of Omar, a farmer, his nonagenarian mother and Libertad, his 4-year-old granddaughter. Far from the folkloric imagery of the gauchos, Alexis Franco confronts the harshness and fragility of a condition in this western in the age of the Anthropocene.

The constant lowing of animals implies that death is at work in this isolated corner of the Argentinian Pampas. Here, Omar, a gaucho, is trying desperately to save his livestock, which are dying of thirst from a never-ending drought, under the eyes of his nonagenarian mother, his four-year-old granddaughter Libertad, and in front of Alexis Franco’s camera. Almost like a family friend, the Argentinian-born director – now based in the United States – films this intergenerational trio united by an unwavering love as they try to stave off the inevitable disappearance of their way of life, remembering in the process his roots and his personal origins. The sequences dialectically elaborate the contrast between the gentleness of the words and actions in the home, meant to shield Libertad's innocence by creating a protective environment for her, and the harsh reality outside, where the adults are confronted with the daily ordeal of the animals – such as the cow they attempt to stand up, using an improvised winch, in order to feed it. Like a western for the Anthropocene age, Where the Trees Bear Meat shies away from heroic imagery, providing a stark depiction of the fragile situation of modern gauchos.

Emmanuel Chicon

Where the Trees Bear Meat, 2024
Permeable Prisons, 2020-2024