The Gardener's Year

A celebration of human resilience and strong will inspired by the story of a real gardener bullied by a wealthy neighbour, but which also says that when a richer and more powerful enemy stands against you and begins to systematically destroy your live, there is basically nothing that you can do about it other than to just take it, which makes The Gardener’s year a mostly rather pessimistic and sometimes even cruel spectacle. In the background of the events that take place in the film, there is a clearly perceptible criticism of the dysfunctional system, government authorities and police organisations that are unable to secure justice for ordinary people. However, this criticism has the form of a somewhat shallow satire highlighting the absurdly bloated bureaucracy and the helpless, doleful faces of those who are asked for help. The choice to base the narrative concept on cutting out all of the protagonist’s lines is questionable. Not that the titular gardener would necessarily need to constantly comment on something, but it is strange, at least at the beginning, when other characters talk to him and he does not respond to them. In any case, Kaiser is great in the lead role and the method of shooting the film continuously over the course of one annual gardening cycle also bears fruit. Rather than as a thrilling story about the terror inflicted by one neighbour on another and seen from the victim’s perspective, the film is appealing as a loving tribute to small growers and handicrafts with emphasis on the beauty of nature and the crops grown by gardeners, with excerpts of Čapek’s poetic literature, as well as a bit of culinary art. (07/04/2024)