The Man Who Planted Trees

Montréal
(Province of Québec, Canada)
The Man Who Planted Trees
The 1987 film "The Man Who
Planted Trees", by Montréal filmmaker Fréderic Back, celebrates the
single-handed efforts of one man, Elzéard Bouffier, who toils to improve his
environment.
Out of a desolate territory, the
dedicated efforts of this generous shepherd make bloom a vibrant forest.
The desert is depicted by the rock
in which Elzéard Bouffier plants his maple trees, whose canopy grow to form a
rainbow symbolizing hope and rebirth. The rainbow and the maple do not just
lend themselves well to the special effect of mosaiculture, but they are also
emblems of Québec, where the forests don flamboyant colours every autumn.
Furthermore, the horses that gallop through the flowering prairie represent
liberty and a return to life.

This was an amazing story it was one of my favorites this
semester. I loved the underlying message about creation. This one man who
seemingly had so little in life but his sheep ended up having more than, in my
opinion, most people. He had the inspiration and power of self to go about the
task of planting all those acorns. It truly was a miracle. He even gave up the
sheep that he loved and had taken care of for years because they damaged the
land his trees were on. The fact that he loved taking care of those trees so
much made the growth of that forest possible. The fact of people not knowing
that whole forest came from one man instead just popping up one day, made me
kind of sad at first but I realized that I think the man wanted it that way. He
just wanted people to enjoy it, but I think that the local people’s insisting
that it just popped up out of nowhere was still pretty nieve. It reminds me of
creation, scientists say that there was this great big bang and everything was
just there, like creation is any less improbable than that. At least there is
more evidence leading to creation.