Alcarràs, el darrer préssec: una aproximació des dels food studies

Abstract

Shot in Catalan with non-professional actors and halfway between fiction and non-fiction, Alcarràs (2022) delves into the extinction of small-scale farmers. Throughout the film, we are confronted with different representations of the dispossession experienced by three generations. This article aims to interpret Alcarràs and its poetic of extinction from the theoretical perspective of food studies, paying special attention to the analysis of the script. Indeed, to narrate the drama of a family of farmers expropriated in the era of neoliberalism, Simón uses a series of framed stories: family memories, feudal legends, and songs that the grandparents' generation passes down to the grandchildren. These are stories of oppression and solidarity linked to food, revolving around who feeds whom and who eats whom. The concept of foodscape is useful for interpreting the portrayal of a gastronomic, cultural, and linguistic ecosystem in which territory, tradition, and language are threatened by supposedly green technology.

Keywords

• Simón Carla
• Catalan Cinema
• Contemporary Cinema
• Food Studies
• Ruralism