The syrupy strings over the opening credits were setting up low hopes for this film: not to expect anything too strikingly original.
But actually, it grew on me this Olive Tree.
I think that was partly to do with Paul Laverty’s screenplay. His dialogue kept heartfelt sentiments from slipping too far into saccharine sentimentality.
Although the story is highly implausible, and even faintly ridiculous, the relationships between the main protagonists stay grounded, sound realistically credible; their interactions never slip out of character into cliché.
It was impossible to dislike this film, or feel unsympathetic with its soulful sentiments. I even shed a little tear near the end (when Anna heard that her beloved granddad had died)
It felt sacrilegious that the olive tree had been ripped out of its ground, deprived of its rightful roots.
‘The olive tree has no price. Its sacred. It belongs to life, history’.
So what was it doing sat in the sterile soul-less lobby of a multinational company in Düsseldorf, thousands of miles from the sun and the soil of its ancestral home?
The film has been described as a comedy drama.
But I don’t think you’ll be laughing much.
Director: Iciar Bollain, Spain
6.5/10
Windows on the World 