SCREEN PROFITS REPORT

Portrait of a Garden

2016 · David Maysles | Albert Maysles | Ellen Hovde | Muffie Meyer · Albert Maysles | David Maysles | Susan Froemke (associate producer) · 1 hr 38 min

In a historical vegetable garden on a Dutch estate, the 85 year-old pruning master and the gardener tend to the espaliers. As they prune, the men chat about food, the weather, the world and they share their knowledge of horticulture. Surrounded by vegetable patches, citrus trees in the historical orangery, the orchard and lush grapevines we're swept along by their passion, dedication and knowledge that make up the essential ingredients of successfully maintaining a large vegetable garden. Fifteen years they have spent working on the pear arbour. Will it finally close over this year? Despite his old age, the pruning master is still inexhaustible and driven. As he worries about the loss of centuries of knowledge, the younger gardener makes a real effort of soaking up all this knowledge and passing it on. Meanwhile the seasons go by. The gardening lady works the vegetable patches, the citrus trees leave their winter accommodation and we get to meet the Apple Blossom Beetle. The grand finale is in August with its seemingly never-ending harvest and its abundance of taste, colour and scent. As peace slowly returns to the natural world, it's business as usual for the gardener amid the falling leaves and the white frost on the branches. Everything has its time.