Alcarràs

Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale, Alcarràs is a beautifully observed ensemble drama, full of heart. As far as they can remember, the Solé family have spent every summer picking the peaches from their orchard in Alcarràs, a small village in Spain. With the sudden news that they face eviction, the Solés find themselves at odds as to how to go on, risking the very ties that bind them. With a remarkable cast of non-professionals, Carla Simón creates an authentic and moving contemplation of the fragility of family and childhood.

Alcarras is a tiny village in deepest Catalonia, where my family grows peaches…We wanted to pay a nostalgic but unsentimental tribute to the last resistant families of farmers still hanging on to their traditions. This is also a film about family relationships, generational tensions and the importance of unity in times of crisis. It was conceived as an ensemble piece due to my desire to express what it means to be part of a huge family…. We worked with non-professional actors from the area of Alcarras who have a real attachment to the land. In order to present themselves as a real family, they spent so much time together that now they call each other by their characters’ names.

Director Carla Simón