Inspired by her own rural upbringing after her parents both died, the Barcelona‑born film‑maker’s latest movie won the top prize in Berlin for its vivid portrayal of Catalonia’s peach farmers
– is set on a peach farm, where children run wild between multigenerational family meals in the sun. Yet, joyous as Simón’s two features are, they are built on a hard foundation of bitter reality. In, a story underpinned by the challenges faced by farmers across Europe, the Solé family lives under immediate threat of eviction, whileEven so, Simón’s stories brim with the hope carried by new generations – the main theme now in her own life.
A scene from Alcarràs: except for the director’s sister, every actor in the film is non‑professional.Every actor in the film is non-professional, except for the director’s sister, Berta Pipó, who was also involved in the casting – a process that involved about 9,000 potential candidates for roles. “We were lucky,” says Simón.
Really? So peach farmers have different personalities from apple farmers? “Not apples – but people who cultivate cereals are more relaxed because they don’t have to deal with a lot of workers, they don’t have to be there at a specific time because otherwise it’ll go bad on the trees, and the prices are more stable.”
The main casting problem was persuading farmers to take part in a summer shoot. “They were like: ‘In summer I have my harvest, so don’t talk about films because I have no time.’” In the end, Jordi Pujol Dolcet, who plays farmer and paterfamilias Quimet, was found at a demonstration, like the one seen in the film, where peach growers protest for better prices. Pujol himself was a farmer, but gave up and now works in a village hall: “It’s a similar story to the one in the film,” says Simón.
To cement her recruits into an onscreen clan, Simón rented a house that her actors visited over three months to prepare their roles and learn family background – “So that they had all these shared memories when we started shooting” – before everyone finally got together for a big communal meal. It was only then that they all read the script. The end result feels convincingly like a casual group portrait of people who have known one another all their lives.
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