Holy Wood Dust

“What is the rarest material in the universe?” botanist Stefano Mancuso asks a group of schoolchildren. The correct answer: wood. It’s everywhere on Earth, but as far as we know it exists only on our planet, making it rarer on a cosmic scale than gold or diamonds. After his films about water (Aquarela) and concrete (Architecton), filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky now turns his camera to trees. He accompanies expert Mancuso, whose groundbreaking research explores how trees perceive their surroundings and communicate.

Their journey begins in the Alps, where centuries-old pine forests are falling prey to bark beetle infestations. Mancuso advocates more diverse reforestation instead of what he calls “fir plantations.” They also visit wintry city squares where immense Christmas trees are being decorated. The industrial cultivation of the millions of Christmas trees that we bring into our homes for a few weeks each year and then dump on the street produces surreal images: endless, perfectly straight rows of head-high trees being tended by an army of men in moss-green military jackets.