Cinematic lyrical poet Victor Kossakovsky (Architecton, Gunda) offers in Holy Wood Dust another distinctive non-fiction meditation on a theme, a work that’s eloquent even if the author’s message is not always explicitly articulated. This time the subject is trees, mostly living ones growing, or at least trying to grow, around the Dolomites in Northern Italy — though the focus broadens to incorporate trees grown on an industrial scale for the Christmas season, especially in Germany.
While the cinematography, credited to DP Gianmarco Donaggio, roughly meets the same visually sumptuous standards one expects from Kossakovsky and his crews — the drone shots’ soaring spectacles are especially compelling — Holy Wood Dust feels a bit lacking in purpose and thrust. Perhaps it falls back a little too often on mini forest-school lectures from amiable botanist Stefano Mancuso, a key collaborator here, reeling off interesting tree facts to a gaggle of Italian school kids.
Holy Wood Dust
The Bottom Line
Wood you like to see some trees?
