Palmeras en la nieve / Tree palms in the snow

La jornada semanal de cine nocturno tuvo sabor español la semana pasada (no acostumbro a ver mucho cine español, aunque reconozco que desde hace unos años me va gustando cada vez más). En este caso la película que vi fue Palmeras en la nieve, una adaptación cinematográfica del libro homónimo escrito por Luz Gabas.

Es una historia a doble tiempo. Por un lado, la de Clarence (Adriana Ugarte), una joven que encuentra un diario familiar del pasado y decide investigar y viajar a Guinea Ecuatorial para encontrar respuestas. Por otra parte, se narra la historia de Killian (Mario Casas) cincuenta años antes, tío de la propia Clarence y la historia que el propio diario narra desde que este llega a Guinea cuando era colonia de España hasta que logra su independencia.

La verdad es que la historia me llamaba la atención, pero había un terrible problema que me echaba para atrás cada vez que quería ver la película, Mario Casas. Me parece un actor terrible, demasiado plano, siempre igual, tal vez con filón entre el sector femenino, pero en una película de este tipo no me parece una apuesta acertada. Sin embargo el trabajo tanto de Adriana Ugarte, como de Macarena García y el de Berta Vázquez me parecen geniales. Quizá en algunas partes es demasiado lenta, y se hace larga.

Me quedo con ganas de leerme el libro en el futuro y la valoro con un 5.ç

The past weekly cinema session at home was dedicated to Spanish cinema ( I don’t watch Spanish movies very often, though I admit that it is getting better and better every time). So this time the movie was Palm trees in the snow, a film adaptation from a homonymous book written by Luz Gabas.

The plot is in two different times but both are setting on Equatorial Guinea. Firstly, Clarence (Adriana Ugarte), is a young woman who finds a family journey from the past and decides to investigate about it and travel to Equatorial Guinea where her family had worked fifty years before. On the other hand, it is told the story of Killian ( Mario Casas), Clarence’s aunt who had lived and worked there for years fifty years ago. We can see how he arrives at there when Spanish has power over there yet, how he falls in love with a native girl, and how harsh was life in there the years just before and after their independence.

The truth is that I had heard of it some time ago and  I wanted to watch it but there was a very huge inconvenient, the leader actor is Mario Casas and I’m not fond of him at all. I think he is always given the same kind of performances, he’s just good-looking guy (even if I don’t think so either) but without many skills for a dramatic career. And certainly in this very case, it was not a right choice for this character. However, I liked very much the roles of the actresses: Adriana Ugarte, Macarena García and Berta Vázquez. They looked not only stunning but they gave great performs as well. Sometimes the movie was too slow, not boring but almost and it is too much long as well.

Anyway, I would like to read the book in the future and I would say that it is 5 for it.