Tag: The Tree of Knowledge

World Premiere Spotlight: Eugène Green’s The Tree of Knowledge at Fantastic Fest 2025

Rui Pedro Silva in Eugène Green’s The Tree of Knowledge. Photo: MoreThan Films, used with permission.

Fantastic Fest 2025: The Tree of Knowledge World Premiere

Fantastic Fest, held annually in Austin and known as the largest genre film festival in the U.S., is back at the Alamo Drafthouse from September 18–25, 2025. Celebrated for spotlighting fantasy, horror, science fiction, action, and cult films, this year’s lineup promises a hauntingly excellent collection of premieres.

One of the most anticipated titles is Eugène Green’s The Tree of Knowledge, having its World Premiere at this year’s festival. (Emma Griffiths PR, 2025)

Film Details

The Tree of Knowledge (A árvore do Conhecimento)
Feature Film (Portugal/France)

  • World Premiere – 2025
  • Runtime: 100 mins
  • Language: Portuguese (with English subtitles)
  • Genre: Dark Comedy / Fantasy

Directed by: Eugène Green
Producers: Luís Urbano, Sandro Aguilar, Julien Naveau
Starring: Rui Pedro Silva, Ana Moreira, Diogo Dória, João Arrais

Fantastic Fest Screening

📍 Location: Alamo Drafthouse Lamar
1120 S Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78704

🎬 Next Screening:
Tuesday, Sept 23rd – 6:00 PM @ Theater 8

Synopsis

In biblical terms, the “Tree of Knowledge” symbolizes free will and the ability to discern right from wrong. For filmmaker Eugène Green, it becomes a metaphor for spiritual awakening and renewal, set against the backdrop of Europe’s booming mass tourism.

The story follows Gaspard (Rui Pedro Silva), a Lisbon teenager who falls into the hands of the Ogre, a man who has struck a pact with the Devil. The Ogre uses Gaspard to lure tourists, transforming them into animals before killing them. Gaspard escapes with a donkey and a dog he has grown attached to, and in an enchanted manor, encounters the spirit of Queen D. Maria I of Portugal. Enraged, the Ogre sets off in pursuit—leading to a fantastical and allegorical journey of survival.

About the Director: Eugène Green

Born in New York City on June 28, 1947, Eugène Green is a French filmmaker, writer, theater director, and actor.

  • Studied literature and art history in Paris
  • Founded Le Théâtre de la Sapience in 1977, staging both contemporary poetic and baroque theater
  • Directed his first feature, Toutes les Nuits (1999, released 2001), winner of the Louis Delluc Prize for First Film
  • Has since directed 10+ feature films and 6 mini-films
  • His works have screened at Cannes, Locarno, Berlin, and other international festivals
  • In 2019, the Fundação Serralves in Porto hosted the first major exhibition dedicated to his cinema

✨ With The Tree of Knowledge, Green brings his signature poetic and philosophical style to Fantastic Fest, offering audiences a surreal and allegorical tale that blends dark comedy, folklore, and fantasy.

New book release: ‘The Tree of Knowledge’ by Daniel G. Miller

‘The Tree of Knowledge’ is book one in The Tree of Knowledge series. Photo: amazon

Daniel G Miller is a writer and entrepreneur. He currently lives in Dallas with his wife Lexi. “The Tree of Knowledge: A Mystery Thriller” is his debut novel, the first in The Tree of Knowledge series. The second is “Of Good and Evil: A Thriller.” (amazon, 2021)

“The Tree of Knowledge: A Mystery Thriller” – Albert can see the future, he just does not know it yet. It is said that the greatest chess masters can envision a match’s outcome ten moves before it occurs. Imagine a person who can visualize ten steps ahead, not simply in the game of chess, but in every human interaction. Imagine a person who could anticipate what you would say before you said it, who could see a punch before it was thrown. Imagine a person who could see the chess game of politics, economics, and power itself unfold long before it happens. Imagine a secret that could make all of this possible.

Mathematics professor Albert Puddles is such a person, and as he is thrust into a murder and burglary investigation on the Princeton campus, he finds that there is such a secret buried in an obscure cipher. The discovery leads Albert to team up with an aging mentor, a curious graduate assistant, and an unusual “book club” on a frantic chase across the country to recover the secret and clear his name. Through this adventure, Albert rediscovers a woman from his past and is forced to confront his own understanding of love, rationality, power, and the limits of the human mind.

“Of Good and Evil: A Thriller” – The second book in the bestselling Tree of Knowledge Series

Albert has seen the future…does he have the power to change it? An unstoppable force is sweeping the United States. Powered by a secret ability to predict and manipulate events, Christina Culebra and her Red Army relentlessly accumulate followers with one goal in mind: Absolute Power.

While Christina and her movement captivate the country, the one man who knows their next move– who knows their every move–Mathematics Professor Albert Puddles, hides, grief-stricken from the loss of his one and only mentor. Hoping that Albert holds the key to solving the secrets of the Red Army, his comrades in arms, known as the “Book Club,” recruit friends and foes alike to bring him back from exile. But they may be too late, for a new enemy has risen to challenge Christina and disrupt the Book Club’s plans, a mysterious terrorist known only as “The Cipher.” Faced with twin threats to everything he holds dear, Albert is forced to use his singular power to decode the riddles of a dead man while reckoning with the ghosts of his past.

‘Of Good and Evil: A Thriller’ is book two of The Tree of Knowledge series. Photo: amazon