{"id":672330,"date":"2026-09-04T13:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T13:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672330\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T13:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T13:56:17","slug":"holy-wood-dust-doc-film-interview-venice-your-christmas-tree-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/672330\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Holy Wood Dust’ Doc Film Interview Venice: Your Christmas Tree Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDirector Victor Kossakovsky<\/a> has developed a reputation for making us reevaluate how we think about human and more-than-human life. His emotional and tender\u00a0Gunda\u00a0(2020),\u00a0about a pig<\/a>\u00a0and her piglets, was the first film in his \u201cempathy trilogy.\u201d Last year, his Trillion, a wordless documentary<\/a> following an artist returning fish scales to the ocean in Norway, was a reference to the estimated number of fish taken from the world\u2019s oceans by humans every year. <\/p>\n

\n\tAt the Venice Film Festival<\/a>, Kossakovsky will world premiere, in a Venice\u00a0Open \u2013 Out of Competition slot on Sept. 6, his new film, Holy Wood Dust, a cinematic invitation into the life and world of trees in collaboration with Italian botanist and author Stefano Mancuso \u2013 and an invitation to change our perspective. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile art may be powerless to halt the conflicts unfolding around us and cannot stop the bullets of today, I believe that telling stories rooted in empathy can plant the seeds for a more peaceful future,\u201d the Russian-born Kossakovsky says in a director\u2019s statement on the Venice website.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat happens to a stump the second after a tree is cut down? What does that tree think and feel at that very moment?\u201d a synopsis for the film asks. \u201cHoly Wood Dust is an invitation to radically reimagine the plant kingdom from a new, groundbreaking perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHoly Wood Dust comes from production companies Be Water Film, Solaria Film, RAI Cinema, Oceanika, Allegra Films and Doppelplusultra Filmproduktion. Be Water Film is handling Italian distribution, with RAI Cinema handling sales. <\/p>\n

\n\tDirector Kossakovsky co-wrote the film with Mancuso. Gianmarco Donaggio is the cinematographer, with editing handled by Ainara Vera. <\/p>\n

\n\tAhead of the film\u2019s world premiere at Venice, THR talked to Kossakovsky about the inspiration for Holy Wood Dust, a scene that will remind cinema buffs of a Federico Fellini<\/a> classic, and why he isn\u2019t done with his \u201cempathy\u201d films.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to make a film about trees?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I was a kid, I walked with my mom, and I took one leaf from a bush, and my mom said: \u201cWhy did you do that?\u201d And I said, \u201cOh, it\u2019s beautiful.\u201d And she said, \u201cIf we take out one of your hairs, do you feel pain?\u201d So I said, \u201cYes, of course.\u201d My mother said: \u201cThe bush feels the same. It feels pain. So don\u2019t do that any longer.\u201d This has stayed with me all my life. <\/p>\n

\n\tOnce I lived in Berlin, there was a brilliant autumn, and I picked up a dead leaf that had fallen off a tree. I broke it in front of a microscope, and I saw something unbelievable. You know what happens to us if you cut your finger? Blood is trying to heal and close the [wound], right? And that made me wonder: What if I looked through a microscope when they cut a tree? What would I see? Of course, it\u2019s complicated, and you cannot bring a microscope to the forest. So, making a film [about this] was a challenge. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut we finally made it, and it really looks like War and Peace. You can see that this tree is totally confused [when things shown in the film happen to the region it stands in]. The tree has lived for 100 years, so what suddenly happened? I remember I was filming and shaking because it\u2019s obvious that something bad happened to the tree, something horrible. It\u2019s confused, suffering, trying to heal and trying to fight.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you end up collaborating on Holy Wood Dust with Stefano Mancuso?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMy assistant was reading something from him during another project when we were on a boat in a storm. She told me, \u201cYou have to read this!\u201d So, I started to read it and then had to buy more of his books, and then I wrote him. And a miracle happened. He wrote back to me in one minute: \u201cI saw a few of your films, so I want to see you as well.\u201d So, it happened by coincidence that we both needed each other. He is a visionary man. And 15 years ago, I started thinking about this film.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Holy Wood Dust\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Be Water Film<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you always know it would be a film about fir trees?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI had a few different ideas, a few different characters. At first, it was supposed to be a film about linden trees [or basswood trees, as they are known in the U.S.]. They are very cinematic. They are like this. (He stretches his arms to the sides.) <\/p>\n

With a Christmas tree, it\u2019s just a vertical triangle, which is not cinematic, especially in the film format I like. I like the 2:1 aspect ratio, which makes things very difficult for a Christmas tree. But I said no, I need to find something to challenge myself with a tree, which doesn\u2019t look good in this aspect ratio, and it needed to be something universal. And Christmas is, of course, something everyone is attached to emotionally. We kind of all connect to the idea of Christmas, and so I decided to make a film for kids and for families.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is an iconic-feeling scene in Holy Wood Dust of a helicopter flying a Christmas tree towards the Vatican. Am I right to see that as a conscious reference to Federico Fellini\u2019s La Dolce Vita, which has that famous scene of a helicopter above Rome transporting a statue of Jesus Christ\u00a0to the Vatican?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI really wanted to say my thanks to Fellini because I remember the moment when I first saw one of his films. I was a teenager, and I saw 8\u00bd in a very good cinema in Saint Petersburg. I remember when the film finished, people left, and I was alone, crying, and I wouldn\u2019t stop. I was just crying, crying, and cleaning ladies came in and started to brush, and they looked at me and said, \u201cOkay, cry, my friend, cry.\u201d It was a full cinema, but I knew the film was for me. It felt like the screen was just for me, and the film stayed with me all my life.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Holy Wood Dust\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Be Water Film<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is also a powerful scene in the film where Stefano Mancuso and a group of kids discuss the importance and value of trees, which has surprising and impactful information.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYes, [that was] important [because] we consider trees like decoration, right? I took [some experiences] with trees as a sign to do this film. It was like a tree was crying, asking me: \u201cVictor, see it. Do it because no one understands. Everyone considers us as decoration. We are not. We are living beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI find the title intriguing. Was Holy Wood Dust always the title for this film?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt is great, but I\u2019m never happy with the working title. The working title was Tears for Fears. <\/p>\n

\n\tGunda and Trillion, both executive-produced by Joaquin Phoenix, were the first two films in what you have described as a trilogy on empathy. This film is different, as it isn\u2019t wordless and black-and-white, but it still covers empathy. What\u2019s your plan for the trilogy at this point? <\/strong><\/p>\n

There are going to be more, at least two more. But I can\u2019t say more at this point.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Holy Wood Dust\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Be Water Film<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s your hope for Holy Wood Dust once audiences see it?
<\/strong>
I\u2019m not saying, Don\u2019t celebrate Christmas, don\u2019t have a Christmas tree! I\u2019m saying you can do whatever you want to do, but be aware that this is not decoration. The Christmas tree is a living being. It\u2019s a live organism, which has 20 senses, and which can live, if you don\u2019t cut it, for 500 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe have five senses. Plants have 20 senses, at least 20. Imagine that, and then you can do whatever you want. You can cut a tree, put it in your corner, and then you can throw it away. Just be aware that if you don\u2019t cut it, it can live for 500 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut this film, I believe, kids will love, and families will love because, in a way, it\u2019s a Christmas carol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director Victor Kossakovsky has developed a reputation for making us reevaluate how we think about human and more-than-human…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[18,117,277808,19,1452,17,327,271363,11492],"class_list":["post-672330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-federico-fellini","tag-ie","tag-international","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-venice-2026","tag-venice-film-festival"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117213121800019012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}