Martin Scorsese Joins Bahman Ghobadi’s Eva Green Horror Film ‘Trees Are Watching’ Ahead Of Toronto Bow

EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival this Friday, Martin Scorsese has joined Bahman Ghobadi‘s Eva Green horror film Trees Are Watching as an executive producer.

Scorsese has been a longtime supporter of Ghobadi and his work and their friendship and collaboration stretches back a number of years.

In 2012, Scorsese presented the Iranian filmmaker’s Rhino Season, starring Behrouz Vossoughi and Monica Bellucci, when it had its World Premiere at TIFF. Their relationship continued in New York, where Ghobadi also spent time on the sets of The Wolf Of Wall Street and The Irishman, with Ghobadi appearing in one scene of the latter.

Psychological horror Trees Are Watching follows Darya (Eva Green), “a novelist who returns with her deaf daughter to her hometown of Mardin, where memories of the past, a Kurdish legend and the destruction of the surrounding landscape begin to converge.”

For Ghobadi, the film is said to be deeply personal, “shaped in part by the nightmares that have followed his 18 years of exile and his reflections on the connection between humanity and the natural world.”

Ghobadi and actor Murat Yıldırım will be in Toronto for the World Premiere.

The film is written and directed by Ghobadi and produced by Seyfi Sahin, Bahman Ghobadi, Lydia Dean Pilcher and Golriz Ehtiati. Scorsese serves as executive producer alongside Lucas Akoskin and Bahoz Nasradin. The film is presented by Open the Door and is a MIJ Film production.

Ghobadi is a festival regular whose films have played at Cannes, Berlin, San Sebastian, TIFF and other events. He’s known for movies including A Time For Drunken Horses, Turtles Can Fly, Half Moon and No One Knows About Persian Cats.