Colell's 'Far From the Trees' Premieres at Locarno
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- "Far From the Trees" premiered in Locarno's international competition as a Spain-Italy-Peru production from Allegra Films, following Adela, a 50-year-old Mexican sound artist recording endangered languages in the Peruvian jungle.
- Colell developed the film beginning in 2020 after a close family death, meeting Vienna-based composer Angélica Castelló — whose own grandfather had gone into exile — which reshaped the project over years of residencies and debate.
- The film links endangered Indigenous Peruvian languages to the Catalan Republican exile under Franco's suppression of non-Castilian languages, with Colell calling it "an ode to the beauty of languages" and "a body of memory."
- Production unfolded in five blocks from February 2024 to July 2025, during which Colell became a mother; producer Mayca Sanz L-Higueras assembled financing starting in 2021 with Italy's Exit Media, Peru's Animalita Cine, Ibermedia support, and RTVE.
- Super 16mm passages depicting memories and visions were shot without synchronized sound, with the voices of Adela's grandparents recorded separately so Castelló could build what Colell calls "a sonic tapestry woven from a multitude of sounds."
- Colell hopes viewers leave wanting to investigate the history of exile or ask relatives "what was never said," exploring who stays, who leaves, and who inherits caregiving responsibility in families shaped by distance.
Why it matters: Locarno's selection validates Allegra Films' pivot to a more ambitious international production model and signals festival appetite for formally daring films about hybrid exile identities. The film's linkage of Catalan Republican exile under Franco to endangered Indigenous Peruvian languages — forged through composer Castelló's own family story — offers a rare cinematic bridge between two suppressed linguistic histories that mainstream cinema rarely touches.
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