Alcarràs

A very personal european family drama that unleashed inside of me an incredibly heart-warming feeling of nostalgia that draw a smile on my face ear to ear for multiple times during the movie.

It's a very quiet movie, you can almost feel every sound of nature during the lines of dialogue, and when no-one is speaking you hear the birds chirping, the peaches falling from the trees and the children laughing and running around the house.

More than a movie experience this feels like you're put inside their family situations and there's some little cute moments where you can't do nothing but feel joy when you know you've already been in the exact same spot - right there picking up figs from the tree with your grandfather.

Its simplistic hangout movie format truly does a lot in favor of the almost documentarian final result and the sincere, raw and honest performances are the cherry on top of this very fluffy peach cake that Alcarràs is. A giant heads up for the child actors. I didn't believe for a single second that they were acting, it really felt like they were just living their lives and having fun.

Besides that Carla Simón's latest project also serves as a subtle critique to the current state of the agricultural industry in spain and the underpayment of the house-farm workers due to the big companies that monopolize the market.

I really appreciated Alcarràs for staying truthful to what it proposed to be - a beautiful and somewhat tragic story of a family that managed to hang toghether through their roughest times.

"Alcarràs" is a poignant, slice-of-life drama about a family of peach farmers in a small town facing the challenges of modernity and capitalism. The film's story centers around the patriarch, Quimet, and his elderly father, Rogelio, as they struggle to keep their land and way of life when wealthy landowners threaten to take it away and install solar panels. The film is directed by Carla Simón and features a cast of first-time actors who deliver naturalistic performances. While some sequences in the second half of the film drag, overall "Alcarràs" is a heartwarming tale of family, community, and the importance of passing down legacies.

This movie is so much more than just a "Spanish family drama". Between somewhere warm, welcoming and cold, harsh and melancholic. The family perfectly portrays the generational changes and different problems through a persons lifetime. Also seemingly stands tall against globalisation and "greenwashing". The solar panels in my reading represent the end of the era of human labour, and also points out the flaws of the new green movements.

I could go on for hours about the minor details, but let me conclude my thoughts in one simple sentence: A complete masterpiece that has its own flaws and unique features.

Considering that this is the second movie of Carla Simòn, I can assume that she will get even better at directing.

Whatever happens, I'll keep my eyes on her work from now on!

The only positives were the amazing performances of children, teenagers, and the very old in the film. It deserved an acting ensemble prize at best. Carla Simon deserves praise for extracting realistic performances. Little else. The script was predictable on change in values that are influenced by pecuniary factors. The crane removing an old car which later removes fruit trees was too contrived for the script. Was it, as the ultimate Golden Bear winner, more deserving than the Grand Prize of the Jury winner, from Korea, Hong Sang Soo's film "The Novelist's Film"? I don't think so. M. Night Shyamalan and his jury that he headed got it wrong, in my view.

Alcarràs. I can say it in two ways: very good film and I really liked it.

It's a sad but especially tender movie.

For me, as I am from Barcelona, this movie is clearly a western in which the family, the land and work are the same thing. And fruit, and love.

And It is also a beautiful movie, natty, warm and pleasant which portrays in a soft manner the strength that rural life requires.

Its language is fresh, direct and very honest.

Full of things simply explained without becoming sentimental, it speaks of something that is lost, that has been snapped up.

I like the children's role in it. It doesn't become burdensome, as is usually the case with children's performances, it is nice and funny but without going overboard.

A balsamic drama very sweet in form but bitter in content.

It is frankly fair the existance of such a good fictional film set in that rural reality.