ALCARRÀS
★★★★
OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 120 MINS
DIRECTOR Carla Simón
CAST Jordi Pujol Dolcet, Anna Otin, Xènia Roset, Albert Bosch
In the deceptively gentle Alcarràs, Carla Simón plunges her camera into the midst of a family in crisis. As the peach farm they have tended for generations is sold, the bonds that tie them together, and to their land, fray. It’s a gorgeous farm, honoured through Daniela Cajíias’ breathtaking cinematography, but an impossibly tough way to make a living. Simón explores how each generation reacts to the destruction of their time-capsule life. Like the farm, the family is a delicately balanced ecosystem — until it isn’t. Hit hardest is Quimet (Jordi Pujol Dolcet), an exhausted father with barely the strength to fight. Boisterous youngster Iris (captivatingly played by Ainet Jounou) is distraught too. As the digger destroys the family’s livelihood, it steals her precious playground.