We Will Be Forest

A universal recipe for when life feels barren. A botanical tale of closeness and caring.


Anna is mourning the end of her marriage when she runs into Maria by chance at her mother's gallery in Milan. When Maria suddenly collapses and is taken to hospital, the pair's lives are irrevocably changed.


Over the course of the long, dry summer that follows, the pair come together to convalesce. Maria, an avid gardener, observes half-dead plants on Anna's terrace, and finds solace in teaching Anna how to care for them. In doing so, the pair also begin to care for each other's loneliness, and find in the natural world a deeply restorative power – one that will open them up to new love and life.


In We Will Be Forest, Ilaria Bernardini draws on a private affair – illness, the end of a marriage, a child to protect – to bring to life a powerful poetic universe in which words sprout like branches and leaves.