In the midst of chestnut woods on the border of Yugoslavia and Italy lives a stingy carpenter named Mario, manically counting his pennies. On the other side of the river, Martha, the last chestnut woman, is ready to leave the desolate valleys for good in search of a better life across the ocean. They share imaginative memories of the past as they weigh fateful decisions for the future, in this touching homage to a lost way of life.

We wanted to capture on film, as a fairy tale, the spirit of Venetian Slovenia, an area on the border of Italy and Slovenia – a mysterious place carved by centuries of political tensions, poverty, and emigration, as well as a special sensitivity to nature and a vivid imagination.

Director’s statement

A passion for pomology led director Gregor Bozic to harvest stories of the farmers who lived along the border where the chestnuts once grew. Cultivating vibrant beauty in each 35mm frame, accompanied by an ethereal theremin score, Bozic captures the poetic impermanence of their joy, sorrow, and loss in this stunning debut, a touching homage to a forgotten land and its displaced people.

Dorota Lech -Toronto Film Festival