Review - Alcarràs
Directed by: Carla Simón
Written by: Carla Simón, Aranu Vilaró
Starring: Jordi Pujol Dolcet, Anna Otín, Xenia Roset, Albert Bosch, Ainet Jounou
Running Time: 120 minutes
Rating: 3.5/5
Nestled deep within a magnificent valley with acres of blossoming peach trees and rich, fertile farmland lies Alcarràs, a small village in the heart of Catalonia. In the midst of the land, imagination runs wild; three young children turn an old, small beaten down car into a make-believe rocketship.
Their eyes, wide open like floodlights, gleefully buzzing and tapping across the makeshift controls of their dashboard canvas, a moment of pristine innocence and profound joy. Suddenly, the ground shakes. The children press their noses against the car windows, their fantasy slowly vanishing before them as a roar of metallic machinery screeches the valley. Retreating into the bushels of peach trees nearby; the children watch in silence as a monstrous crane lifts their once make-believe rocketship of a car high into the sky.
In the distance, trucks make their way to the farm. The children watch with trepidation. There is no beauty or awe in this moment.
There is an intruder on their land.
An alien.
Carla Simon’s delicately beautiful Alcarràs is a reflection of the changing times; a poignant portrait of the Solé family and their complex relationship with the land that defines their nature, their character and their lives. A bloodline of multigenerational farmers, the Solé family’s way of life has been threatened when the original owners of their land decide to uproot the peach trees that have blossomed across the valley for years – in favour of solar panels. Faced with an inevitable final harvest, Alcarràs unravels the uncertainty of change across the different perspectives of the Solé family; their bravado and unity slowly fading as they begin to take sides and oppose each other in the face of such inevitability. The younger generation look on – from the safety inside a vehicle, across a valley stream, or from another room; our future, the children, must be agents of change but they will always be caught in the pull of traditionalism.
Carla Simon’s sophomore effort is a heartfelt tribute and love-letter to her family. Semi-autobiographical, Simon screenplay and direction borrow heavily from her summers in Alcarràs; nostalgic memories of family gatherings in the outside fields of her village where her uncles and grandfather harvested peaches as well. There is a sense of naturalism in Simon’s film – every scene, every location and every line of dialogue feels as authentic as can be. With a cast led by non-actors, the film often feels absolute in its authenticity; the family patriarch holds his stature as we know one would, children skip and dive through the trenches of farmland valley as we would imagine they would and teenagers linger and sulk in their social anxieties just as we know they would.
Simon’s cast evokes such an authentic representation of a world under represented, it would be a disservice to recognize the cast as “actors” as their performances feel so lived in and fully realized. Every character, every scene and every moment of the film echoes with magic – the Solé family shines even through moments of anger, sadness, laughter and even silence, Simon paints their everyday lives with a sweeping sense of nostalgic warmth, an embrace of empathy and authenticity.
Even in its most quiet of moments, Simon reminds us that like change, life comes in waves. Bound by loyalty in blood and tradition, the only inevitability that one can be certain of, is the notion of change. Generations may tradtionalize protect and honour the past, but the film seemingly stresses the importance of understanding how to embrace change even in the most challenging of oppositions. Alcarràs is the family tree that slowly bares its roots; their leaves changing and falling to the sweeping gusts of the winds of change. It is beautiful, melancholic and meditative in its honest memory of a world distantly embraced by nostalgia and uncertainty of the future.
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