The olive tree

Spain 2016

Dir: Icíar Bollaín

98 mins, subtitled

Cast: Anna Castillo, Manuel Cucala, Javier Gutiérrez, Pep Ambròs

Rating: M

Standing up for what you believe, and believing in compassion and community, are the hallmarks of any script by Ken Loach’s collaborator Paul Laverty, who wrote last year’s I, Daniel Blake. This warm, gently rousing Spanish film is directed by Icíar Bollaín (Even the Rain) and written by Laverty (Bollaín’s partner).

It tells of a young Spanish woman, Alma (Anna Castillo, a compelling lead), who determines to rescue and return to rural Spain her disturbed family’s beloved, highly symbolic olive tree – which now sits in the Düsseldorf lobby of a multinational company, whose logo it has inspired. Commentary on a changing Europe – and especially a socially and economically forlorn Spain – underpins The Olive Tree, but the human relationships are most poignant here, especially the one between Alma and her ailing grandfather.

Dave Calhoun, Time Out

The Olive Tree blends a simple human drama with contemporary European politics to great effect, in a story that is as symbolic as it is deeply felt.

... Creatively using a combination of both professional and amateur actors, the movie manages to inject humour into situations that might otherwise have strayed into overblown sentimentality. Young lead Castillo anchors the film with a sensitive performance that balances her character’s tough exterior with the deep love she feels for her grandfather. Director Icíar Bollaín and screenwriter Paul Laverty, who together created 2010’s wonderful Even the Rain, turn this tale into a sun-dappled fable with equal parts wit, conscience and melancholy.

Isabelle Milton, The Upcoming

... Accomplished craft elements are all of a piece with the pic’s unobtrusive, summer-faded naturalism, with extra credit due to Pascal Gaigne’s lovely score, which sustains a tricky balance of lilting melancholy throughout.

Guy Lodge, Variety