The Royal Lemon Tree
(El limonero real)

A transposition of Juan José Saer’s eponymous novel, and a landmark work in Argentinian literature, The Royal Lemon Tree narrates the journey of Wenceslao, in his late fifties, in an isolated insular setting in Sante Fe Province during the last day of the year. As time and the River Paraná flow by, grey areas begin to fill the frame of the narrative thread: Wenceslao goes to the family meal alone, as his wife refuses to leave the house since their son died. He himself is as present to the surrounding elements as he is absent to social life, gradually trying to share with us this “space within”. Attentive to the irreversibility of the moment, The Royal Lemon Tree is a poetic essay. This eleventh feature from Gustavo Fontán is composed like a musical piece of image and sound, delicately and elegantly edited. So much so that it manages to make us forget the original book, while at the same time echoing its vibrant essence: as Juan José Saer commented, “writing is to explore and gather together wisps or fragments of experience and memory in order to make an image”. CA