The International Jury of the Berlinale, the festival that gave birth to Carla Simontoday awarded the highest Golden Bear award to the Spanish director’s second feature film, five years after her debut film was awarded. Summer 1993 (Summer 1993) with the award for best debut film. Collecting her award during the 72nd Festival Gala, the director stated that the Berlinale, where “something special happens” every time she goes, is her “cinema home” and that she considers herself daughter of this place“.
The admiration is mutual: in January last year, the artistic director of the festival, Carlo Chatrian, announced the return of the director to the festival “with a long-awaited Alcarraz“and recalled Simon’s previous participation in the Berlinale. Film Summer 1993which was screened in the Generation section for children’s and youth films at the 67th Berlinale, “was one of the most successful festivals” and Simon “wowed us with his young hero,” recalls Chatrian.
During a press conference following the awards ceremony, the director said she was “very proud” of the fact that people from all over the world could empathize with “such a local” story in this way and that it began with her uncles growing peaches in Alcarraz. On the other hand, he added, this is normal, because we all have families and there is agriculture all over the world, that is, the film is touching. universal themes.
Berlinale jury chaired by an Indian-American director M. Night Shyamalanestimated at Alcarraz the “extraordinary ability” of the actors that Simon recruited from popular festivals in the region where he takes place. As well as the ability to combine “tenderness and comedy” around this family who suddenly have to harvest their last crop as the trees on the land they have been cultivating for decades will be replaced by fields of photovoltaic solar panels.
In her speech at the gala concert, the director dedicated the award to “the little farming families who cultivate the land every day to bring this fruit to our plates.” He thanked his crew, the “wonderful” cast of non-professional actors who “give and put their soul” into this film, and his family who grow peaches and inspire it.