'Alcarràs': Green carpet homage to rural life in Catalonia premieres in Lleida

Organizers did not get the color of the carpet at the premiere of 'Alcarràs' wrong: it was green, instead of red, for a reason.

The movie, winner of the 2022 Golden Bear at the Berlinale International Film Festival, is an homage to farming, and its premiere was another reminder that rural life in the most remote parts of Catalonia is at risk of gradually vanishing, as new generations and the world of technology are taking over.

Held in Lleida, the capital of rural Catalonia in the west of the territory, the premiere was the curtain-raiser for the big moment director Carla Simón is waiting for: the film's theatrical release this Friday, April 29.

A green carpet, not red, was not the only element to pay tribute to a world we are slowly losing, tractors were  placed outside the venue, La Llotja de Lleida, and plenty of wooden crates were found there too, containing apples, pears, corn, grain, and almond shells.

Samples of local foods and delicacies were offered to visitors after the screening, including hard almond nougat treats and roasted nuts.

Some of the most senior authorities in the country attended, including the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, Spain's and Catalonia's culture ministers, Miquel Iceta and Natàlia Garriga respectively, and many regional and local officials were there too. 

The movie

'Alcarràs' tells the story of a family during their last fruit harvest on a farm before the owners of the land install solar panels. It's set in the Alcarràs countryside, outside Lleida in the west of Catalonia.

Like Simón's (b. Barcelona, 1986) first feature film (Summer 1993), the story is based on personal experience, in this case the death of her grandfather, as she explained to the Catalan News Agency (ACN) during an interview in Berlin.

"The loss of my godfather, who had always worked in the fields, made me appreciate his legacy and I wondered if those trees would really be there forever. And the answer, probably, is no," Simón says.

Her film, with a cast made up of non-professional actors, delves into the loss too of an entire way of life – small-scale family farms.

She wants it to act as a tribute to "one of the oldest jobs in human history but one that is in danger of dying out," while at the same time showing off the "cinematic value" of rural Lleida.