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