Alcarrás

For generations, the Solé family has spent summers harvesting peaches from land bequeathed to them in a handshake agreement dating back decades to the Spanish civil war. But when the estate’s owner dies and his heirs choose to sell the property, the tight-knit clan suddenly faces eviction and the prospect of an uncertain future. Like her stunning and personal feature debut, Summer 1993—which screened at the Festival in 2017—the landscape of Simón’s latest is inspired in part by her own childhood in small-town Catalonia. Alcarràs, winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, sees her confidently build on her earlier artistic achievement with a beautifully photographed, sensitively drawn yet unsentimental observational drama that features quietly astonishing performances from its ensemble cast as a fractured family whose sense of place and way of life are under threat.