THE OLIVE TREE
DIRECTOR: Iciar Bollain
SPAIN / 2016
BOFA 2021 Online Film Festival
RUNNING TIME: 100 MINS
A small, soulful film … with staggering landscapes.
-Sunday Times
In many Spanish villages, the most important historical artefact is not the church, or the town hall, or the Roman fountain in the square. It is the thousand-year-old village olive tree. This delightfully intimate film by respected director Iciar Bollain contrasts a poor yet stunning rural Spanish landscape against the clinical efficiency of a German industrial conglomerate. The Germans have bought and taken away one of the oldest trees from a local farm, to use as a greenwashing logo. This has sent the family patriarch into depression and dementia – so his granddaughter vows to go to Germany to get it back, and save her grandfather. The unfolding story is part beautiful imagery, part Samson vs Goliath, part edge-of-seat detective/baddie story. Mix all these together and you get an hour and a half of pure, satisfying, breathtaking and elegantly crafted entertainment. This is a film that everybody in the family will bond with and enjoy, and talk about for days afterwards.
AWARDS: Winner, Best Actress, Goya Awards 2017
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