French-Australian film to close Cannes festival

A movie shot in Australia starring French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, "The Tree", will be screened to mark the close of this year's Cannes film festival, the organisers said on Thursday.

The film by French director Julie Bertucelli, based on a novel by Judy Pascoe, is about a 10-year-old Australian girl called Simone, played by Morgana Davies, who hears the voice of her dead father speaking from inside a tree.

Gainsbourg won a prize for best actress at last year's Cannes festival for her performance as a grieving mother who sexually mutilates herself and her husband in Lars von Trier's "Antichrist".

"The Tree" also features the Canadian actor Aden Young. It will screen on May 23 after the awards for the films in competition have been made.

The festival opens on May 12 with Ridley Scott's new version of "Robin Hood", starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.