PALM TREES IN THE SNOW
North American Premiere
Country: Spain
Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Original Title: PALMERAS EN LA NIEVE
Film Year: 2015
Category: CineDwnTwn Galas
Unfolding in two parallel stories, two generations of the same Spanish family are drawn to the romance, beauty and danger of Equatorial Guinea. In 1954, strapping young Kilian (Mario Casas, in his most romantic role thus far) journeys from his Huesca home to the African island of Fernando Pó, where he falls perilously in love with Bisila (Berta Vazquez), the beautiful wife of a plantation worker.
Decades later, Kilian’s niece, Clarence (Adriana Ugarte, who plays the title role in Almodovar’s forthcoming Julieta), discovers a letter hidden among Kilian’s belongings. Clarence sets out upon her own journey to Fernando Pó (now Bioko) to retrace her uncle’s steps—and unearth a long-buried family secret. The two intertwined narratives reflect the upheavals of Equatorial Guinea itself, which declared its independence in 1968 after nearly 200 years of colonial rule, and has subsequently experienced the growing pains of any nascent nation.
This big-budget, sweeping romance, produced on the scale of Oscar-winning classics like Gone With The Wind, Out of Africa or The English Patient, is a triumph of melodrama at its most wildly sensorial. Everything is hyper-real, fiercely vivid and smoldering with passion in these years of living dangerously: the snows chill to the bone, and the palm trees sway as if swooning for the sexiness of the romantic leads. – Jaie Laplante
This film is also a part of the Lexus Ibero American Feature Film Competition.
SHOWTIMES
Saturday March 5th @ 8:30pm OLYMPIA THEATER Add to Schedule
credits
Director: Fernando Gonzalez Molina
Producer: Mercedes Gamero, Adrián Guerra
Screenwriter: Sergio G. Sánchez
Music: Lucas Vidal
Cinematographer: Xavi Giménez
Editor: Irene Blecua, Verónica Callón