The Olive Tree

The Olive Tree (El Olivo, 2016) is a Spanish drama from director Icíar Bollaín, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Twenty-year-old Alma works at her family's poultry farm in Castellón and can't stand watching her grandfather waste away in silence.

The old man stopped speaking and barely eats. Alma is sure she knows why: years ago the family dug up a thousand-year-old olive tree and sold it to clear debts — a quietly common loss in the region. So she sets out to bring it back, even though the tree now stands in the lobby of a German company hundreds of miles away. She ropes in her uncle and a friend, a truck, and a half-baked plan.

The screenplay comes from Paul Laverty, Ken Loach's longtime writing partner, so the social anger sits right alongside a gentle road-trip comedy. Anna Castillo won the Goya for Best New Actress as Alma. It's a small, stubborn film about roots and what we owe the people who raised us. Stream The Olive Tree (2016) online on iFILM.