"El olivo" or "The Olive Tree" is a Spanish full feature film from this year that runs for approximately 95 minutes and as there is a road movie component to it, there are all kinds of languages included in here. The writer is Indian-born British filmmaker Paul Laverty and not too many will know him. However, the director (female filmmaker Icíar Bollaín) as well as the cast are exclusively or almost exclusively Spanish. This is probably one of the more known films from Spain this year, even if the cast are probably only known to Spanish people. Lead actress is the young Anna Castillo and she plays a woman trying to get back her grandfather's beloved olive tree when her granddad is clearly struggling with his health and he has been missing the tree for years after the family decided it had to be cut for financial reasons (over sentimental reasons).

I personally enjoyed the watch for the most part. There were parts and sequences that should have been left out, but I will come to these in a second. While I did not think Castillo was bad in the lead role, I still felt repeatedly while watching that I would have preferred the actress who plays the main character's friend, the one with the kinda short punk-style haircut, in her role instead. But you can't always get what you want. The weakest moment for the film was perhaps when they randomly through in a reference about the main character being touched inappropriately on several occasions as a child. What was that? You cannot do that without elaborating any further on it. Oh well... I generally would say that the second half of the film was better than the first because we actually found out more about the characters and there was more character development while the presentation part in the first half, also with the early phase of the road trip was just too long. I do believe they should have included the flashback scenes as at least one third of the movie and not just five minutes. I must say the fact that we saw so little from early when she was a child hurt the film's emotional impact by a lot.

But away from the negative, lets focus a bit on the positive now: I thought this was a really interesting and well-done film from the moment when they arrived at Dusseldorf. The company's actions seemed realistic and I also liked the reference to the ending in terms of happiness. Happy ending, I mean. It would have been pretty unrealistic if they had actually managed to get the tree back, but the way with planting a new one it was still fairly optimistic. Life goes. Life rises. And may this new olive tree be indeed luckier than the last one. The social media campaign component of the film is fine overall I guess. I can see it become a bit of a spectacle, but maybe it all went to fast. Then again the ride to Germany was much longer than it may have seemed for us audience members. As a whole, there were a handful scenes I was not too fond of and the dialogue writing also wasn't perfect on many occasions, but I still believe it is a solid little tale, especially after minute 50, and the positive outweighs the negative. Watch it if you can.

The picture is set in El Maestrazgo, province of Castellón, in the Autonomous Community of Valencia, there a young girl Alma (Ana Castillo) decides to put away their differences to other family members and undergo a hard mission . When a tree was cut , the grandfather suffered deeply in his soul . Each day Alma's grandfather leaves a little stone in the place where olive tree was planted . Meanwhile, her grandfather is in failing health , his grandfather gets seriously sick, he has emphysema and depression from the ancient tree was cut . Although Alma's grandfather never is referred by his birth name. This tree was bought by a powerful company , this enterprise that acquired the olive three is identified as RRR Energy International . Alma hires the help her uncle nicknamed Alcachofa (Javier Gutiérrez) and a friend called Rafa (Pep Ambròs ) to transport an ancient olive from Dusseldorf ( distance between Dusseldorf and the town where they live are about 1,650 kilometers (1,030 miles,) Germania , to Spain . Alma wants to get the huge Olive before it's too late, which means traveling from his home in the rural Comunidad Valenciana to Germany .But she just hopes that she can finish the trip the way he started it . On that trip, she affects and is affected by her partners and those she encounters . As with other issues in his life, she needs to make the trip on his own terms, which means on her own , her uncle and a friend . The only thing that matters to her is to get the main objective , to bring the valuable and enormeous tree to Spain . She will stop at nothing to get it .

This is an interesting and thought-provoking film dealing with adventures and misfortunes carried out by a trio of obstinate people who start an emotional travel to recover a family tree . A brooding and attractive road movie full of drama , suspense , agreeable relationships among protagonists , and brief touches of humor . Enjoyable as well as provoking screenplay by Paul Laverty , reportedly based on a real story Top-notch main cast such as Anna Castillo as a good , idealist girl , a youngster who needs to do things on his own terms , undertaking a his strange journey to mend an unfair situation . Very good acting by Javier Gutiérrez as uncle Alcahofa whose birth name of the character never is revealed, he is an unfortunate man who explains a debtor debts him about 90,000 Euros , but finally helps her niece . And Pep Ambròs as Rafa a good friend who falls for her .

Adequate and colorful cinematography by Sergi Gallardo . Emotive and sensitive musical score by Pascal Gaigne .The motion picture was originally directed by Iciar Bollain . She has worked as a leading actress in selected films like The South (1983) by 'Victor Erice', Malaventura (1988) by 'Manuel Gutiérrez Aragon , Land and Freedom (1995) by Ken Loach, it became an acclaimed audience's and critics' choice ; Leo (2000) by 'Jose Luis Borau' that won the Best Actress nomination Goya Spanish Academy Awards and Nos Miran (2002) . She is a prestigious producer , writing and directing since then both documentaries and fiction films. In 1995, she wrote and directed her feature film debut, ¨Hola, ¿estás Sola?¨ (1995),awarded with Best New Director in Valladolid Festival and was nominated for Best Directorial Debut by the Spanish Film Academy. The film became one of Spain's 1996 box office hits. Flowers from another world(1999),was her second feature film and was awarded at Cannes Film Festival 1999, Best Film in the International Critics' Week ; ¨Take my eyes, 2003¨, was her following film as writer and director, winner of 7 Goyas Spanish Academy Awards, including Best Film, among many other international awards. Her next feature film is ¨Mataharis (2007)¨ , ¨Katmandu¨ and this ´El Olive¨ at her best .

Emotional and effective story of an ancient olive tree, the family that sold it, the grandfather who mourned its loss and the granddaughter who fought for its return. That's it really but this is beautifully told with some great footage of some magnificent trees. Newcomer Anna Castillo is perfect in the role as supporter of her grandfather and one who remembers a childhood in his arms and in those olive tree branches. A little too much time perhaps spent on the road but nothing can detract from the evident mixed emotions on display as a family fractures and then perhaps comes back together. All because of a tree, albeit a wonderful looking one. And perhaps 2,000 years old.