ALCARRAS

 Spain's entry in the Best International Feature category for the the 2022 Oscars, "Alcarras" tells of how a family of Catalonian peach farmers are forced from their land by the son of the former landowner after his death and of how this divides them, the title taken from the region in which they live. If you think the superb performances of the entire cast are wholly naturalistic it's because director Carla Simon cast non-professionals in every role but one. The result is a largely documentary approach and a film that might have once been directed by Ermanno Olmi.

Despite the dramatic potential of the subject matter for a lot of the time not a great deal happens. We simply observe these people struggling with the situation in which they find themselves though it's not all gloom and doom. This is an extended family that knows how to play as well as work and the scenes involving the youngest children are among the best of their kind in recent cinema. Unfortunately the pace of the film proves too leisurely for us to feel as emotionally involved as perhaps we should. That said, both Jordi Pujol Dolcet and Albert Bosch are superb as the father and son finally united by the very thing that divides them and there is no denying the beauty of the bittersweet ending.