Alcarràs (Alcarràs – The Last Harvest)
Alcarràs is a small village in Catalonia. For as long as they can remember, the Solé family has lived off the fruit of a land that is not theirs but to which they devote all their efforts. This year’s harvest, however, may be the last: the land owner has new plans for the orchard, the peach trees have to make way for photovoltaic panels. The imminent felling of the trees they have cared for all their lives causes a deep rift within the large family, which for the first time faces an uncertain future and risks losing something even more precious than their home.
Catalan director Carla Simón won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival with this work. We read in the director’s notes: “Humans have been cultivating the land in family groups since Neolithic times. That of the farmer is the oldest profession of all time. But the Solé family’s story takes place at a time when traditional agriculture is no longer sustainable. Like them, there are many families who, after generations, are forced to abandon their land. One question imposes itself: what is agriculture today? Alcarràs is a tribute to the resilience of the last farming families, anchored in ancient traditions and increasingly marginalised”.
Alcarràs (Alcarràs – L’ultimo raccolto)
Carla Simón
Spain, Italy 2022
120’
Direction
Carla Simón (1986) grew up in Catalonia. She studied Audiovisual Communication at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of California. In 2011 she received a scholarship from La Caixa for a master degree at the London Film School, where she directed the short films “Born Positivo”, “Lipstick”, “Those Little Things” and “Llacunes”.
In 2017 his first feature film, “Summer 1993”, won the Best First Feature Award at the Berlinale, where it also won the Grand Jury Prize in the Generation Kplus section. The film received more than 30 awards worldwide, including 3 Goyas and an EFA nomination, and represented Spain in the Oscar race. In 2018, Carla Simón was also awarded the Young Talent Prize promoted by Kering and the Cannes Film Festival. She later made the short films “Después también” and “Correspondencias”, an epistolary conversation with Dominga Sotomayor, which premiered at Visions du Réel, the New York Film Festival and the San Sebastián Festival among others. “Alcarràs”, his second feature film, won the Golden Bear at the 72nd Berlinale.
