The Winter Garden’s Tale
NEW DOCS
For the last 45 years, Mrs. Valentina Voronina has been the steward of the floriculture pavilion in the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the Ukrainian SSR. With a motley crew of four-legged companions, Voronina has devoted her life to tending plants and mending structures, making the most of seemingly insufficient resources to keep the declining greenhouse alive and standing. But times are changing, and she has been asked to step down and leave the facility of which she’s been the epicenter. As the days leading up to her retirement pass by, fraught interactions with her successors expose a woman unable to see circumstances and solutions through any lens but her own. Amidst broken windows and cascades of plastic tarp, lush green vines and decaying tools, tensions fill the air. Exquisitely photographed over the changing seasons, The Winter Garden’s Tale achingly maneuvers through deteriorating chambers and relationships alike to capture a portrait at once physical and psychological, and leaves us to imagine whether it is more painful to see an entity fail in your absence or to see it thrive without you. ST
Filmmaker Q&A following screening
Director
Simon Mozgovyi
Producers
Alex Chepiga, Taras Bosak, Artem Koliubaiev
Editors
Mykola Bazarkin, Simon Mozgovyi
Cinematographer
Denis Melnik
Original Title
Історія Зимового саду
Release Year
2018
Festival Year
2019
Country
Ukraine, Czech Republic
Run Time
75 minutes
Subtitled
Yes
Premiere
North American Premiere