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.

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" 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.

What a beautiful film! The choice to use non-actors was brilliant, as this film feels entirely real and true. I was absolutely engrossed by this simple story filled with immense complexity, dealing with family politics, gender, the working class, tradition, the encroachment of the new, among many others. Beautifully shot as well, the film had many frames that looked like paintings. Beautiful and quietly devastating, yet hopeful. 9/10.

See the emotional perspectives of a family owned apple farm and realize the absolute beauty of mundanity and ordinarity in such lives. The work, play, tradition and love being portrayed is done masterfully through calm and strong integrity. It is not often one stumbles across a film so well-crafted with a clear sense of motivation and devotion. I personally really liked this one.

Each character is represented as they are, in regard to themselves, their environment and who they represent. The subtility of the distractions one faces as uncertainty slowly corrupts parts of their lives and how they live as a result.

The one rave scene was tastefully portrayed and I'm happy to see some hakken.