Alcarras
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 Spain’s Catalonia region. But this year’s crop may well be their last, as they face eviction. The new plans for the land, which include cutting down the peach trees and installing solar panels, cause a rift in this large, tight-knit family. For the first time, they face an uncertain future and risk losing more than their orchard.
After her beautiful debut Summer 1993, Carla Simón draws again on her experience of rural life in the Catalan countryside, where human activity is part of a cycle governed by seasons in a capricious climate. Family dynamics may be muddied by economic concerns, but there are also differences in how each individual relates to time.
The film won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlinale and has been chosen to represent Spain as a foreign language Oscar nominee.
Carla Simón (1986) grew up in a Catalan village called Les Planes d’Hostoles. She graduated in Audiovisual Communication at the Universitat Autònoma in Barcelona after spending a year studying at the University of California. She then studied on a TV Fiction course organised by Catalan Television and subsequently at the London Film School. Her short films have screened at numerous festivals. She participated in Berlinale Talents in 2015 where the screenplay for her debut feature film “Summer 1993” was selected for the Script Station. It later became a debut feature film of the same name, which was a huge international success and was also shown at the PÖFF. Simón’s sophomore second feature, “Alcarràs” (2022), won the Golden Bear at the 72nd Berlinale, becoming the first Catalan-language film to do so. The film was also selected as the Spanish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. “Romería” is her third full length feature film.
Filmography:
Estiu 1993 (Suvi 1993, PÖFF 2017), Alcarràs (PÖFF 2022), Romería (2025)