When Capitalism Hits Alcarras, Catalonia

Release Date：Jan/6/2023

Genre：Adventure/Drama

Director：Carla Simón

Cast：Albert Bosch、Anna Otin、Jordi Pujol Dolcet

Viola's Rating：8.1

AI in general, ChatGPT and Midjourney have been around for quite a while, and as technology is progressing, the world is pushing away the traditional ways of making a living. Spanish-Italian Catalan-language feature film Alcarras demonstrates how capitalism hits this town in Catalonia and breaks a happy family. It won the Golden Bear at the 72nd Berlinale and was released limited on Jan 6, 2023.

Inspired by the director’s own childhood memory, the plot of this adventurous drama depicts the life of a family of peach farmers who live in a small village in Catalonia. Their life changes when the owner of their large estate dies, and his lifetime heir decides to sell the land as solar farm. Their livelihood suddenly is under threaten.

Alcarras displays agriculture and the life of farmers faithfully. This industry depends on a not always co-operative co-operation. Whenever the weather’s beautiful, farmers must work, and when it’s not, they worry about whether there will be a flood. Even forgetting to close the valve could lead to the same result. The family in the film even have to shoot hares at night for the protection of their crops. It’s a not so lucrative business that requires the whole family to dedicate themselves into.

Although the story is about losing a livelihood, the carefree children in Alcarras present that no matter what happens, life continues to move on, and so should we. Maybe kids that are too young don’t quite understand what’s happening with the family business, but it creates an even sadder and moving ambience in the flick.

What’s interesting about Alcarras is that none of the actors is professional actor. They’re either farmers or teachers, and that’s exactly the reason why they’re so comfortable with picking peaches in the motion picture and interacting with a big family with a bunch of children in different ages.

Alcarras not only wants to draw attention to the difficulties agriculture nowadays is facing, but also how family members cope with them and look at them under such situation. It’s impossible for a family to never encounter fractions, but it’s when they face obstacles that it’s the most challenging, and the audience gets to witness how the family in the movie deal with such tricky issue.

Taiwanese picture Gaga also mentions how verbal agreement on land ownership generations ago could lead to miscommunication and problems. It as well shows that people in modern world value relationship less, and this is also something we need to adjust ourselves to according to the time we live in.

Alcarras truly depicts the happiness and sorrow of a farmer family and how their attitudes change through time after they learn that their estate is going to be taken away soon after the harvest one last time.

Picture Credit: IMDb