The Olive Tree (2016)

A girl, her uncle and a friend start an emotional travel to recover a family tree.

Director:

Icíar Bollaín (as Iciar Bollain)

Writer:

Paul Laverty (screenplay)

Stars:

Anna Castillo, Javier Gutiérrez, Pep Ambròs

3 wins & 15 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Anna Castillo	...	Alma
Javier Gutiérrez	...	Alcachofa
Pep Ambròs	...	Rafa
Manuel Cucala	...	Ramón
Miguel Angel Aladren	...	Luis (as Miguel Ángel Aladren)
Carme Pla	...	Vanessa
Ana Isabel Mena	...	Sole
María Romero	...	Wiki
Paula Usero	...	Adelle
Janina Agnes Schröder	...	Sophie
Cris Blanco	...	Estrella
Paco Manzanedo	...	Nelson
Inés Ruiz	...	Alma 8 años
Aina Requena	...	Madre de Alma
Pia Stutzenstein	...	Kristin

Storyline

Alma is a young girl with emotional problems and a special relationship with her grandfather Ramón, an old country man who stopped talking about 12 years ago after his son, Alma's father, sold a 2000-years-old olive tree in order to open a restaurant. Dominated by the sadness and the melancholia by the loss of his most beloved tree, Ramon spends his days visiting the place where the olive tree was planted, hoping the day the tree returns. Unable to bear the situation any longer, Alma looking for the olive tree, discovering that it was acquired by a Germany's energy company located in Dusseldorf. Without money or resources, Alma convinces her uncle Alcachofa and her friend Rafa (who has a love interest for her) to go in a truck from Spain to Germany to recover the tree, starting a travel with unexpected consequences for everyone...

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Plot Keywords:

2010s | plan | spanish | spaniard | grove | 

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Taglines:

There Is a Land With a Soul.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The surname of the lead family is Cucala, probably after Manuel Cucala, the actor who plays the grandfather.

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Goofs

At minute 62, when the lorry is driving in continental Europe (and about to enter Germany), footage of a motorway is briefly shown, with traffic driving on the left hand side.

User Reviews

A Beautiful Tale of Life, Love and a really old tree

Alma is a teenager who benefited from the pure love that a grandparent can give to a favoured grandchild. As such she loves her grandfather, but her own father and uncle are not so sweetly disposed to their old man. He, meanwhile, has started to slip from the World. His decline goes back to when his sons sold his beloved olive tree that was two thousand years old to fund a restaurant business before the banking crisis.

We get to a point where Alma realises he will die if he is not reunited with the tree and so sets out on a mission to find it and bring it home. Only problem is she hasn't got a clue or any money and no way of achieving her aims but she decides not to let the glaringly obvious stop her.

Now this is a lovingly written story by the brilliant Paul Laverty ('I Daniel Blake' etc) and is acted by players who all inhabit their perspective roles with a simple believability. It can be funny and it can be painful but at its heart it is just a very touching and human story and shows how a thing can be as important to a person and another person – we can not help what we love in life. It is in Spanish with a bit of German and some English – well translated in the sub titles. If you like Ken Loach film you will want to see this - completely recommended.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Germany] Official site [Japan]

Country:

Spain Germany

Language:

Spanish German English French

Release Date:

6 May 2016 (Spain)

Also Known As:

The Olive Tree

Filming Locations:

Spain

Box Office

Budget:

EUR4,200,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,090,232

Company Credits

Production Co:

Morena Films, Deutscher Filmförderfonds (DFFF), Eurimages

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1