Gardening With Soul

September. 12,2013      
Rating:
7.5
Trailer Synopsis Cast

Sister Loyola is one of the liveliest nonagenarians you could ever meet. As the main gardener at the Home of Compassion in Island Bay, Wellington, her daily tasks include heavy lifting alongside vigorous spade and wheelbarrow work, which she sometimes performs on crutches. Loyola and the other Sisters of Compassion follow the vision of Mother Aubert to ‘meet the needs of the oppressed and powerless in their communities’.

Similar titles

Liberty Kid
Max
Liberty Kid
Liberty Kid is a 2007 low-budget American film that is directed by Ilya Chaiken. Two friends Derrick and Tico lost their jobs at a concession stand at the Statue of Liberty because of 9/11. In order to make money, they become drug dealers and participate in insurance scams. Derrick wants to go to college and has to support his two kids. When recruiters from the army come, Derrick decides to join the army because he is told that he'll get money for college and live rent free. When he tells his mom his decision, she says that she is afraid that he'll have to go to war. The recruiter tells him that his mom is only worried because it is her job as a mom.
Liberty Kid 2007
K-11
Prime Video
K-11
Raymond Saxx Jr., a powerful record producer, wakes from a drug-induced blackout to find himself locked up and classified "K-11." Plunged into a nightmarish world ruled by a transsexual diva named Mousey, Raymond is truly a fish out of water. Complicating matters are a troubled young transgender named Butterfly, a predatory child molester and the ruthless Sheriff's Deputy, Lt. Johnson. Ray's struggle to contact the outside world and regain his freedom seems impossible, but he must learn to navigate this new power structure if he is ever going survive and be in control of his life again.
K-11 2013
The Cool Lakes of Death
The Cool Lakes of Death
Hedwig, a young wealthy woman growing up in the straight-jacket of bourgeois morality in the Victorian era, descends into madness after years of sexual repression and tragedy.
The Cool Lakes of Death 1982
How to Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days
How to Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days
A kid strives to be perfect, and in the end realizes that individuality is more fun.
How to Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days 1983
The Visitor
The Visitor
Exploring the timeless landscape of the Judean desert like a lost space-traveller, a woman examines plants and animals. Synthetic sounds defy all logic.
The Visitor 2015
One Fine Morning
Prime Video
One Fine Morning
With a father suffering from neurodegenerative disease, a young woman lives with her eight-year-old daughter. While struggling to secure a decent nursing home, she runs into an unavailable friend with whom she embarks on an affair.
One Fine Morning 2023
Grand Isle
Grand Isle
A married woman in 1890s Louisiana meets a handsome Creole, reawakening her sexual desires, and is tempted into an affair with the man.
Grand Isle 1991
Eyewitness
Prime Video
Eyewitness
When she has a fight, with her husband, Lucy runs out of the house, and into a night of terror. She heads for the local cinema, and in doing so, becomes the only eyewitness to a couple of crooks, who are robbing the cinema's safe. In her haste to escape the thieves, she is knocked down by a passing bus, and is taken to the local hospital. The two crooks follow, and wait for a chance to finish her off, and thus eliminate the only person who can tie them to the robbery.
Eyewitness 1956
Blood of the Tribades
Blood of the Tribades
A vampire named Bathor turned an entire village to vampires, stuck around long enough to teach them to survive, and then promised to return in 2000 years after conquering the rest of the continent. The only problem with this plan is that the vampires, although immortal, have only a limited capacity for memory. As time passes, they forget their utopian society and led by the totalitarian zealot Grando, become paranoid, superstitious fundamentalists, splitting their society by race and gender lines, seeking to destroy those who are deemed sinful. Long-forgotten lovers Élisabeth and Fantine find that, with the help of those who were banished in the past, it is their fate to piece together the past and help preserve the little that remains before Bathor’s impending return.
Blood of the Tribades 2016

Reviews

TrueHello
2013/09/12

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

... more
Livestonth
2013/09/13

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

... more
Neive Bellamy
2013/09/14

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

... more
Fleur
2013/09/15

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

... more
chrismccloughen
2013/09/16

Filmed over four seasons at the Home of Compassion in Wellington, New Zealand, Gardening with Compassion, focuses on the life of ninety year old Sister Loyola Galvin, a nun in Mother Suzanne Aubert's Sister's of Compassion Roman Catholic religious order. Although having to get around on crutches or with cane at times, Sister Galvin enthusiastically tends to her gardening duties while extolling the importance of good compost and companion planting as she disperses pearls of wisdom and insights from her life. This is a simple but moving story of dedication and love from a woman who is both spiritual and practical, much as the founder of her order was. Technically, this is not the greatest cinematography that you will see, and I would have loved to have discovered more of Sister Loyola's interior spiritual life, but I respect her comment that such things can be difficult to put into words.

... more
marklear-1
2013/09/17

This film is a year in the life of an aging nun, and we learn much of her life story, her personal philosophy and much of it is put in context within her amazing love of gardening. She is an inspiration to many other folks, and is an engaging person to be with over the 100 minutes of this documentary. The film is divided into the four seasons of the gardens, and I felt that the order chosen was not random. The story is a gentle one, and the film moves along at a leisurely pace, appropriate for the nature of the material. There is one major criticism I had of the film - I found the cinematography very disappointing, and the hand-held work amongst the worst I have seen. (I think much of this was deliberate, but it did not work for me.) The corny use of soft focus, and the repetitive way it is done was also annoying. The director and producer really should have realized that this looked very amateurish, doing a disservice to the story.

... more