ALCARRÀS | Spain | Carla Simón | MUBI

By vinodnarayan on March 15, 2023 • ( 0 )

Alcarràs is the Spain’s offical entry to Oscar. Set in Alcarràs, Catalonia it tells the story of a farming family that has just figured they might lose their farmland that their family has been farming in for over three generations.

The movie starts with the adults in the family frantically searching if there is any documentations that can tell the land is theirs. There is none. The oldest member tells that the people before him were all promised that they did not have to leave the land. They never had anything like written documentation back then.

The land actually belongs to the Pinyols and their heir is putting a proposal so the family can continue in the land. Quit Farming and use that to install solar panels and generate power and even hire people to look after it and manage this.

This means that the earth under their feet starts shifting. The movie is also about the disappearance of agricultural land and the conflict between the new and old. Quimet who is the eldest son wants to find some way to keep the land, understands he will finally lose it. The son in law to the family Cisco is less attached to the past and likes th proposal of the Solar Panels and works on that in one part of the land. This also starts a conflict.

What I liked about the movie is the three or four generations traveling together. May be even five or more generations. Let me explain.

The land is a generation before the current living generation. The dad is the only generation that had some recollection of when the land first came into their hands. The Grandfather Rogelio and his wife are all from that generation.

The next generation is that of Quimet and Cisco and so on. Quimet’s son and daughter are teenagers and in a new generation where the farm is part of their life and what they know. But they know there is a world outside that. They want it all to exists as they know it. Not one to replace the other.

Then there are these small kids who are not very aware of what is happening but know something is not right. The broken down car they play with is removed from the property at the start of the movie and they are sad. But they soon find a cave to play their war and soldiers game.

Thank You MUBI for bringing the movie to us.

Note: This post is not sponsored by MUBI. It is just that I watch a lot of MUBI now.