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Resetting the Cork
Images - Spanish Film Festival 2023
Cork is a sub-titled debut feature from Director Mikel Gurrea, and stars Vicky Luengo and Pol López as husband and wife Ivan and Elena, and Ilyass El Ouahdani as Karim. A film screening at the Spanish Film Festival (14 Jun to 12 July), be sure to check out the rest of the program to discover a lineup of 32 films celebrating the Festival's 25th year this year. The film is inspired by the writer/director Gurrea's own experiences when he worked on a cork plantation in Catalonia. He has chosen to explore the balance of power in relationships and the tensions among individuals working together.
From Barcelona, Elena and Ivan are about to have their first child and decide to follow through moving to the countryside to an old stone farmhouse that Elena inherited from her aunt. Adjoining it is a 1200-acre cork forest they plan to work, so it can provide them with their livelihood, and enable all the renovations the farmhouse is going to need. It's a different environment and circumstances slowly reveal how very different each of their approach is to decisions that arise from circumstances in this harsh reality.
There are celebrations when Elena and Ivan walk the talk and decide to move to the country, Their friends are elated for them and it's made very obvious this is a young couple very much in love, and have big dreams. When they arrive they are given a rundown by the locals of the farming co-operative about what to expect, and the dangers of fires and having their water tanks filled and hoses ready for the dry weather and threatening wind. Feeling like they've been given the riot act of doom and gloom, when approached by an independent worker who offers them a good deal to work the cork forest, they decide to go with him and decide they don't need the permission of the co-op.
With no prior knowledge, Elena and especially Ivan are winging it. Determined to work with and learn from the workers, Ivan sets off to work each day with them while Elena makes independent decisions back at the house that don't quite align with Ivan's views; tensions escalating with time. Ivan also realises that he may have illegal workers on his land, including a teenage labourer Karim. From here on the film goes in all directions as it covers the dynamics of the couple, the workers and the environment, simultaneously. What started as a happy beginning slowly deteriorates as tensions rise, amongst the couple, the migrants, with the weather threatening all their livelihoods if they don't work according to its seasons. In a nutshell, it's all about taking care of the environment; home, work and forest, with the film leaving you to work it out for yourself as to which way the winds blow.
You'd have to be 'all in' and focused and go with the tempo of this film to be fully engaged, to appreciate this brooding story with long moments of nothing. Otherwise, it's going to just feel like a slow-burn rural drama that goes too slow for far too long. However, the lead actors put in a good strong performance throughout, keeping it engaging. There's nothing complex about the story other than the dynamics of human relationships. Strongly performed, it will perhaps make you take sides and bring forth strong opinions about who you thought was right or wrong in making decisions, depending on your moral compass. Slow though it may be, the film still has the power to evoke strong emotions.