Reel Español
Australian Premiere

PALMERAS EN LA NIEVEPalm Trees in the Snow

Director

Fernando González Molina

Cast

  • Mario Casas, Adriana Ugarte, Macarena García, Alain Hernández, Berta Vázquez, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba
2015, 163 min, SPAIN
ROMANCE/DRAMA
SPANISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
18+ (exemption)
Visually, one of the most spectacular Spanish films made.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Raking in over two million admissions in Spain, and based on a best-selling novel, Fernando González Molina delivers a sweeping, colonial romance spanning across the generations in the style of Out of Africa.

In the present day, the young, idealistic Clarence (a sultry Adriana Ugarte) discovers a fragment of an old letter which shows that her aging, addled uncle Killian (Celso Bugallo) has been secretly despatching money to an island family. So begins Clarence’s journey to uncover the dramatic history of her family. Delivered via flashbacks, heartthrob Mario Casas dominates the screen as the young Killian, who worked as the head of a plantation, and whose passionate but cursed secret romance with the graceful indigenous Bisila (Berta Vazquez, also Casas’ partner off-screen) is rife with anguish. All the while, the colonialism’s complexities are revealed as Spanish Guinea shifts towards independence and the black/white power relations change.

Scripted by Sergio G. Sanchez (The Impossible, The Orphanage), the film is largely set on a lush island in Equatorial Guinea, and is packaged with breathtaking cinematography to match.

  • WINNER 2016
    Goya Awards: Best Art Direction, Best Original Song
    NOMINATION 2016
    Gaudi Awards: Best Cinematography