Berlinale: A bear for Catalonia, Bärlis for Austria
On Wednesday, “Alcarràs”, Carla Simón’s portrait of a Catalan peasant family, won the Berlinale main prize. Ruth Beckermann and Kurdwin Ayub also received trophies. Ulrich Seidl’s “Rimini” went empty-handed.
She wanted to dedicate her prize to the people who cultivate the country, said the native Spaniard Carla Simón on the stage of the Berlinale Palace on Wednesday evening after she was presented with the Golden Bear for Best Film. And thus marked the political omens under which their triumph at the Berlin Film Festival can be read: as a beacon for those farms that are often left behind on the side of the road in the current furor of progress – even in the ecologically conscious.
Simón’s second feature film “Alcarràs” is the sensitive portrait of a Catalan farming family whose livelihood is threatened by a solar park and rising prices. In a breezy, naturalistic way that is somewhat reminiscent of Alice Rohrwacher’s films, she follows the everyday life of the busy clan, women, men and children. The always cozily bright images of work on a long-serving peach plantation could quickly hide the fact that the main characters are in financial distress. It gradually becomes apparent how the threat of forced eviction is undermining the interpersonal relationship, how the fear of being out of the loop breaks out, each time in a different way. In this way, the film manages a remarkable balancing act between the private and the political, without ever degenerating into a plate of eco-sermons.