Berlin-based M-Appeal will be responsible for worldwide sales of director Joaquín del Paso’s The Garden We Dreamed. The film is a lyrical depiction of familial love and human resilience, driven by a high-stakes drama set in Mexico’s stunning Oyamel fir forest, home to countless monarch butterflies.
A step up for Del Paso, who bowed out in 2021 with the well-received thriller “The Hole in the Fence” at Venice Horizons, “The Garden We Dreamed of” (“El Jardín Que Soñamos”) will have its world premiere next month in the Berlinale’s Panorama Main Sidebar section, the Berlin Film Festival announced Wednesday.
The Garden We Dreamed will be distributed in Mexico by Pimienta Films, led by ROMA producer Nicolas Celis.
Starring Nehemy Bastien, who starred in the 2021 Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard film Frida, “The Garden We Dreamed” centers on Esther and Junior (Faustin-Pierre), a Haitian couple who settle in a logging company in a remote mountain forest.
In “The Garden of Our Dreams,” Junior’s job is insecure as the conflict between loggers and local villagers becomes increasingly intense over the proceeds from illegally logging the forest. But the heart of the film lies in the way the family, led by Esther, carves out a powerful space of love in their small makeshift hilltop hut, as Del Paso celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the natural surroundings of flor and majestic oyamel trees and dazzling monarch butterflies.
Del Paso talks about “The Garden of Our Dreams”
“This film depicts two migrations happening simultaneously: the Great Migration from Haiti to the United States, and the monarch butterflies heading south from Canada in search of warmth,” Del Paso told Variety.
“These stories converge in a forest where human greed endangers everything. My intention was to create a drama in which the ‘eternal magic’ of the forest is contrasted with the high-stakes reality. Like its predecessor, this film focuses on the ‘group’, in this case a chosen family in extreme situations where every decision concerns survival,” he added.
“The Garden We Dreamed,” also written by Del Paso, stands out as a film shot with an ARRI Alexa 35 camera by Turkish ace director (and current director) Gökhan Tiluyaki, known for his work on Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Cannes Palme d’Or winning film “Winter Sleep.”
In a sign of trends in high-end, non-English cinema, Del Paso captures the sounds of birds (the chirping of the West Mexican chachalaca and Mexican goldfinch, layered with the rhythmic drone of upland insects) in an unusual two-and-a-half-minute opening shot that circles through a forest at dawn before picking up two approaching trucks, feeling like a giant intruder into the Garden of Eden.
“This is a sonic tapestry aimed at anchoring the viewer in the beauty of what is being eroded, creating a sharp and unsettling contrast with the encroaching sounds of loggers’ trucks,” Del Paso commented.
Del Paso added that the sound was designed in Carlos Reygadas and Natalia López’s Splendor Omnia post-production studio using Dolby Atmos and layered for “sensuous realism.” “By focusing on the quiet dignity of a family’s struggles rather than melodrama, and by using a strong cinematic language to express what the characters are living through (rather than a documentary-like approach), we hope to offer a portrait of resilience that challenges the audience’s expectations,” he told Variety.
M-Appeal’s Maren Kroiman and Pimienta Film’s Nicolas Celis talk about “The Garden of Our Dreams”
“’The Garden We Dreamed’ transforms the realities of the world into a deeply intimate and universally relatable story,” said M-Appeal CEO Kroiman. “This is more than just a movie, it’s a captivating cinematic experience, visually enhanced by an emotional performance by Gökhan Tiryaki’s extraordinary eye, and immersive by its stunning sound design. Highlighting important environmental and human themes, it takes us through a story where love and hope endure even in the most fragile places.”
Producer of Natalia López’s The Robe of Jewels, director Del Paso’s debut in the main competition at Berlin 2022 includes 2016’s Panamerican Machinery, which won the top prize at Mexico’s Guadalajara Film Festival, and 2021’s The Hole in the Fence, which had its world premiere in Venice’s Horizons section and topped the Cairo Film Festival.
“Joaquín is one of the most important filmmakers of his generation and stands out as a talented individual with a unique cinematic voice,” added Celis, founder of Pimienta Film. “His films are notable not only because they offer a ‘fresh’ story, but because they are deeply crafted, authentic and essential films with a vision that stays with the audience. As a distributor, we felt this film was essential. A beautifully told story that draws the viewer in and lingers long after the credits roll.”
Production content
“In a time when political contexts and power structures are draining us, what remains is for us to seek an intimate experience of existence through our own eyes and through our own power, leaning into each other.” Del Paso said Fernanda de la Pesa, founder and CEO of Mexico City’s Carcaba Cine, which heads the co-production with Amondo Cine, a film group based in Warsaw, Delhi and Mexico City, which was co-founded by .
“The Garden We Dreamed” is produced in association with Mexico’s Peninsula Film & Entertainment (“Danica”), Atomica (“Malva”), Producciones Espiral, Alebrije Producciones (“Amores Perros”), Sula Entertainment (“Lost in the Night”) and Stellium.
