An ecological black comedy. Humanity is reduced to the last city left on Earth, absurdly overpopulated. It is entirely surrounded by a large forest reaching out as far as the eye can see, inhabited by a mysterious creature that feeds off human sacrifices. In order to maintain population balance, The City conveys grotesquely strict rules. Once you reach the age of 70 you must be sacrificed, there is no room for old people. There is a strict one-child policy in the city, people who don’t adhere to the law are publicly hanged. 

Matylda (32), a shy and lonely government worker searching for true connection illegally falls pregnant with her second child with Vincent (31) after an awkward one-night stand. In order to avoid punishment, she is forced to confront her reality, and question the value of life. Together with Vincent, they escape The City. 

Matylda and Vincent warily enter the forest, they are completely surrounded by pine trees. An eerie fog hangs in the air. United, they enter the unknown, where we discover there is a ‘creature’, just not as portrayed to the citizens of The City. A grotesque murdering tree squashes Matylda and Vincent to death, not allowing them to go any further into the forest. 

We dissolve out high in the air – revealing the powerful forest surrounding The City, reaching out as far as the eye can see. Nature entirely surrounds the self-secluded city, as humanity is reduced to a small speck on a green and thriving planet Earth. 

Eryk Lenartowicz is a Polish/Australian writer and director. He is a graduate of two film schools, the Gdynia Film School (Poland) and the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School (AFTRS). Having been engaged in the theatre from a young age, Eryk takes on an unordinary and interdisciplinary approach to film.

His short films have screened at numerous international film festivals. His graduating short film, ‘Dots’, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Cinéfondation section. Other international film festival highlights include the Sydney Film Festival, Denver International Film Festival, FlickerFest International Film Festival, Gdynia Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, and many more.

Eryk worked as Assistant Director for episodes 1‐2 of ‘Wataha’ season 3, directed by Olga Chajdas, produced by HBO Europe. Staying close to his theatrical roots, he also worked as Assistant Director on the world’s first stage adaptation of Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Magnolia’ directed by Krzysztof Skonieczny at the Wrocław Contemporary Theatre (Poland). 

Eryk is currently developing a number of projects, including the screenplay for his debut feature film titled ‘The Border’, supported by Screen Australia. The project was also selected to take part in the TorinoFilmLab Feature workshop and ScripTeast.

Yvette Underwood graduated from the National Art School studying Fine Arts, majoring in Printmaking. Coming from a fashion background, she achieved a full scholarship to Parsons Design School in NYC before moving into film media.

Yvette worked on many short films and music videos in alternating roles of production designer, costumes, producer, and script supervisor; including ‘Dots’ dir. Eryk Lenartowicz, which had it’s World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 (Cinéfondation).

Since then Yvette has independently been working as a writer, developing ‘The Twelve’, a high-end television series based in Australia as well as feature film ‘The Border’, which was selected to the TorinoFilmLab in 2019 and received development funding from Screen Australia.

Yvette currently resides in Sydney, Australia.