The Solé family’s orchard has passed down from father to father for generations, but now, it is in danger of destruction at the hands of solar panel developers. The family’s ownership of the land exists as a verbal agreement following an act of profound kindness many years ago, but that is meaningless to a company looking to transform their bountiful trees into empty space on which to build.

Dread and inevitability cause fractures among the family facing eviction, played by non-professional actors. Quimet, the masculine leader of the pack, spends most of Alcarràs butting heads with everyone around him. The weight of this seismic shift to their way of life is heavy on his shoulders; in many ways, it is a film about the isolation of traditional masculinity, too stubborn and defiant to accept a losing battle and find comfort in those who are experiencing this impending loss with him. Everyone is anxious, but Quimet particularly feels a sense of ancestral and patriarchal responsibility while up against an impossible task.

It works both as a family drama and as a lament for earthly traditions. The Solé’s land is rich with lush greens, ripe with juicy fruits, and cinematographer Daniela Cajías shoots their farm like the Garden of Eden under attack. In an early scene where the young children play in an abandoned car only for it to disappear moments later, dumped unceremoniously aside by a digger, we are primed to fear the speed at which change happens, and that what is here now can be lost in an instant.

Winning the Golden Bear at 2022’s Berlinale, Carla Simón’s stunning film cares about people and place. Its heart leans socialist in its framing of protest and resistance, and is imbued with the centuries-old struggle of workers against inhumane capitalism, like a verbally told folk tale, passed on just like the Solé’s farm.

RATING: 4/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Josep Abad, Jordi Pujol Dolcet, Anna Otin

DIRECTOR: Carla Simón

WRITERS: Carla Simón, Arnau Vilaró

SYNOPSIS: For as long as they can remember, the Solé family has spent every summer picking the peaches in their orchard in Alcarràs, a small village in Catalonia. But this year’s crop may well be their last, as they face eviction.