Description:

A tree, like a loving mother, gives a person everything she can throughout her life. Based on Shel Silverstein's story "The Giving Tree".

"The Giving Tree", a picture book by American author Shel Silverstein, was published in 1964. The parable about love and self-sacrifice became one of Silverstein's most famous works. It has been reprinted many times and translated into dozens of languages.

The Tree (in the Russian translation, "apple tree") loved a little boy who often played near it. It was happy when the boy was around and when the Tree could do something to help him. When the boy grew older and began to visit the tree less often, the tree became sad.

One day the young man grew up and said he needed money, so the Tree gave him all his apples to sell.

Many years later, a mature man said he needed a house to start a family, and then the Tree gave him all its branches to build a house.

After many more years, an older man said he needed a boat to go to a quiet place, and then the Tree offered him its trunk to make a boat.

At the end of the book, an old man comes to see the Tree, that has become a stump. The Tree says that it can't give him anything any more, but the old man just needs to sit down to rest. He sits down on what is left of the Tree, and the Tree is happy about it.

The simple story told in the book has given rise to many interpretations, including religious ones. For example, there is an opinion that the self-sacrificing Tree is Jesus Christ, and this version is supported by the symbolism of the colours on the cover of the book (red and green, the main colours of Christmas). On the other hand, the role of the Tree can also be assessed negatively: since it fulfills the boy's every whim, it is sometimes seen as indulging his selfish tendencies. The book is also seen as a warning against the thoughtless use of natural resources: by taking all that the Tree provides, the boy deprives himself of the possibility of using its fruits in the future. Feminists, paying special attention to the fact that the Tree in the book is described in the feminine gender, see in this case a traditional image of an oppressed woman (mother to her son or wife to her husband). The author himself avoided any certainty in the interpretation of his book, claiming that it is "simply a relationship between two people: one gives and the other takes".

In 1995, shortly after the book's 30th anniversary, First Things published a compilation entitled "The Giving Tree: A Symposium", in which experts from various fields gave their interpretations of the work.

Although wordless, this film was released in both Lithuanian and Russian "versions". first video above is in the theatrical frame rate of 24fps and has Russian credits. It was scanned from 35mm film by Andrey Kinokrut in 2023. The second video is in the TV frame rate of 25fps and has Lithuanian credits.