Forest on Location

The 11,800 year-old Białowieża forest, located in the border region between Poland and Belarus, has been a wellspring of European imagination for centuries, forming the backdrop for legends, myths and fairytales. Throughout its history the forest has been assigned various roles: from a cultural and historical construct to a fought-over economic resource and a political hot potato. Despite its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, its continued existence is threatened by extensive logging.

Using footage shot on location, Margit Lukács and Persijn Broersen created a digital “back-up” of the disappearing forest, converting two-dimensional photographic documentation into a three-dimensional environment that forms the backdrop for the performance of Iranian opera singer Shahram Yazdani. He has created a Persian interpretation of Nat King Cole’s 1948 hit song “Nature Boy.” In his version a wise tree is talking to a wandering lost young man, as an antithesis to the often imperialist relationship with nature in Western culture. The overwhelmingly magical and picturesque world we enter in the beginning of the film gradually gets deconstructed in layered, fragmented parts.