Under the Tree

2017, 89 Minutes
Iceland, France

Director: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson

The shade from a front-yard tree brings the already simmering tensions between two families in an Icelandic suburb to boiling point, in this hilariously absurd and psychologically astute comedy from director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson.

Under the Tree follows a man who is accused of adultery and forced to move in with his parents. While he fights for custody of his four-year-old daughter, he is gradually sucked into a dispute between his parents and their neighbors over an old and beautiful tree. What starts as a typical spat between suburban neighbors unexpectedly and violently reaches a boiling point, soon spiraling out of control.

Absurdly hilarious and psychologically astute, Under the Tree probes the way proximity heightens resentment and malice.

 

“Near-perfect calibration between family drama and black comedy.” — Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter

“Savage black comedy. Charting an initially familiar battle of across-the-fence attrition between bad neighbors in polite surroundings, Sigurðsson gradually takes petty bourgeois tensions to alien, gasp-worthy extremes.” — Guy Lodge, Variety

 

Official Selection:
Venice Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival