Alcarràs: Die letzte Ernte

Yesterday I went to the theater with my girlfriend to watch this film which I didn't know anything about. And from the very beginning I was surprised with the quality of it. Everything was masterfully done. The set, the camera angles, the performances, the characters, the dialogues, the plot... All was highly realistic and beautiful at the same time. 100% recommended.

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.

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.

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.

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.