About
“I must be gone and live, or stay and die.” — William Shakespeare
Speaking Tree is a beautiful film about a man named Deva who loses his mind while grazing camels in the desert of Northwestern India. As a result of his madness, he is chained to a tree for nearly a decade and cared for by his mother and brother. When an earthquake devastates the region, leaving tens of thousands dead and millions homeless, Deva regains his sanity and attempts to adapt to his former way of life.
From five years of candid observation of Deva, interviews with Deva's family and footage of contemporary Indian village life, filmmaker Natasha de Betak weaves a compassionate and visually stunning account of the fragile man's bout with insanity and his struggle to come to terms with his newly regained clarity of mind.
Indigenous Studies:
Regions:
Credits
Speaking Tree
Directed by
Natasha De Betak
Writing Credits
Natasha De Betak
Cast
Deva Raja Rabari
Sonibai Deva Rabari
Sura Raja Rabari
Sonibai
Produced by
Yann Brolli
Sharupa Dutta
Deepika Gandhi
Pan Nalin
Dilip Shankar
Mihir Upadhyay
Music by
Cyril Morin
Cinematography by
Emmanuel Bovet
Siddharth Anand
Kumar
Editing by
Nathalie Hubert
Gordana Othnin-
Girard
Production Management
Samir Sarkar
Sound Department
Harikumar
Madhavan Nair
Remi Stengel