The Tree is a French-Australian 2010 film co-produced between Australia and France. It was filmed in the small town of Boonah in Queensland, Australia and follows the lives of Dawn (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her four children after the unexpected death of her husband Peter (Aden Young). The film is an adaptation of the debut novel Our Father Who Art in The Tree by Australian writer and performer Judy Pascoe. The film closed the Cannes Film Festival on 23 May 2010 following the Awards Ceremony and received a seven-minute standing ovation. As well as this, The Tree premiered at the 2010 Sydney Film Festival. The film is distributed in the US by Zeitgeist Films, opening on 15 July 2011 in New York, on 22 July in Los Angeles, Boston and Washington, D.C., and throughout the country over the summer.
Dawn and Peter O'Neil live together with their children (three boys and a girl), on the outskirts of a small country town. Next to their rambling house stands the kids' favourite playground: a giant Moreton Bay Fig tree (now known in real-life as the Teviotville Tree), whose branches reach high towards the sky and roots stretch far into the ground.
Sacred oak tree standing tall
What have you to say
I will listen with my heart
Speak to me this day.
Teach me of your strength and courage
To stand proud and tall
But to humbly give completely
Teach me most of all.
I came to you when I was weak
These were the words I prayed
You took me in your warm embrace
There to always stay
My heart did yearn, so I returned
To find that you were gone
But in my heart I heard you whisper
"You must carry on"
"I give to you my life", you said...
"The strength and courage too
The lessons of complete surrender
These I give to you."
"Take them now, for I am with you
There's work that must be done
In the healing of our mother
You and I are one"