Fig TreesMovie
FIG TREES is a documentary opera about AIDS activists Tim McCaskell of Toronto and Zackie Achmat of Capetown as they fight for access to treatment drugs. Documentary interviews, speeches, press conferences and demonstrations are sampled, taken apart, and set to music, replayed this time as operatic scenes. A surreal fictional narrative is intercut with the stories of their struggles against government and the pharmaceutical industry. In this fictional world, Gertrude Stein decides to write a tragic opera about Tim and Zackie and their saint-like heroism. She kidnaps them, transports them to Niagara Falls, and forces them to sing a series of complicated avant-garde vocal compositions. However, when Zackie ends his treatment strike and starts taking his pills, Gertrude realizes that there will be no more tragedy, and thus, no more opera.
About Fig Trees
Fig Trees is a 2009 documentary, music movie directed by John Greyson.
The production information lists a runtime of 1h 40m, production credits from Canada, an original language code of EN.
The credited cast includes Van Abrahams, Zackie Achmat, Stephen Chen, Ezra Perlman. The synopsis above summarizes the central premise without adding details beyond the available title information.
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