A wonderful post courtesy of Arsetflora about a filme from Iciar Bollaín.
“Sometimes you have to jump headfirst and people help you along the way “, the sentence come from the movie “El Olivo”, (“The Olive”, available only in spanish) a fictional story by Iciar Bollaín that approaches the environmental issue in which he portrays the real estate bubble , the rush and corruption of the Spanish Mediterranean strip, through the drama of the olive trees abandoned in the Maestrazgo by speculation, laziness, lack of sensitivity and the search for immediate profitability.
“It is that this tree is not ours. It does not belong to us. It is about history, life, earth, our grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. It is not our”. The argument that a farmer makes in front of his children, who want to sell an ancient olive tree to get money that comes in handy, to cover holes in their battered economies. The Olive that will end up in the lobby of a multinational in Germany and that his granddaughter, Alma, will try by all means to bring back.
The film takes place in Castelló, in the Valencian Country. The original idea arises from
a news story that tells how many thousand-year-old olive trees have been sold throughout Europe because of the economic crisis. For the director, “these trees were a reflection of plundering (theft) suffered by” the Spanish landscape during the economic boom and “from what we have lost after the crisis.” The film is a call to protect the heritage ecological and our roots. (Source: press book of the film).