Stories From The Chestnut Woods

https://www.iffo.ca/stories-from-the-chestnut-woods

Set in a decaying forest on the Yugoslavian-Italian border in the years immediately after World War II, Stories From The Chestnut Woods weaves its fairy tale tinged stories of survival in an area between Italy and Slovenia named Slavia-Veneta, perched on the frontier where the Iron Curtain meets Western Europe.

In this forest lives an older man named Mario, known locally as the Stingy Carpenter. Competitive and stubborn, Mario is obsessed with money. Always working, neglectful of those closest to him, he even fails to notice his wife has fallen gravely ill. Meanwhile, Mario befriends Marta, a young woman known as the Last Chestnut Seller, who tends to the nearby chestnut groves after her husband’s disappearance.

In this haunted, perhaps even enchanted region, these two lonely figures contemplate their future. It offers a stark choice: staying put in this impoverished postwar hinterland, or, as others are doing, climbing on the nearest farmer’s cart and go rattling off into the unknown world beyond.

A promising young talent in Slovenian cinema, Gregor Bozic shot this his first feature on 35mm celluloid, which gives this episodic, magic realist tale its rich palette and visual poetry. Stories had its North American premiere in the ‘Discovery’ section of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.
– Tom McSorley

Ticket info is here:  iffo.ca/boxoffice

Tickets – $16 non-members or $12 for CFI members/students/seniors

*This screening is a rental. Normal Mayfair ticket prices do not apply.
Box office will be cash only for this event.