Life and Death of a Christmas Tree

If you stop a passerby in a European town and tell them that most of the festive trees originate in Georgia, they would be surprised – often the nice and bushy Christmas trees are labelled as Danish. No one is aware of their Georgian origin. The European Christmas tree industry alone is worth almost 3 billion euros annually. Surprisingly, the small Racha region provides up to 80 per cent of European production. Meanwhile, most local families live on less than €10 a day. This social drama is an observation of two different communities. Both of them, one in Denmark, and the other in Georgia are in Christmas tree businesses. As we observe their lives, we experience the joys and sorrows of the local people and witness differences and similarities between cultures. The lives of the communities are very different despite both living in Europe. The Danish Christmas tree growers belong to the middle class in wealthy Northern Europe. The Georgians live in a remote mountainous poor part of Georgia, exhausted by several wars and a painful transfer from the Soviet regime to democracy. We can see many things in common between them, but as long as we dive into their lives we discover a huge separation between living conditions, attitudes and mentality. The seeds of the fir cones are harvested every autumn in Georgia and then sold to the Danish, who grow the seedlings for 7 years to sell them across Europe. The Georgian firs grow as tall as 60 meters, and to reach the best cones, the pickers have to climb to the very tops. Sometimes they lose their balance and fall. We follow the life of a Christmas tree from cone picking in Georgia and fir plantations in Denmark to its death in a waste container. Life and Death of a Christmas Tree is an ensemble cast film, featuring people we met on the Christmas tree trail - cone pickers in Georgia mountains, seasonal Lithuanian woodcutters in Denmark, Danish Christmas tree farmers. In the finale, the episodes of the fireworks encourage us to reflect on the meaning of this festive day, which has now become the apotheosis of consumerism. Is it worth the lost lives of Georgian cone pickers? The film makes the audience both laugh and cry. The film delivers full-scale emotions for the audience, from nostalgic childhood memories to compassion for the poor cone pickers.