Meritxell Colell Aparicio's 'Far From the Trees' Premieres in Competition at Locarno
A Mexican sound artist travels into the Peruvian Amazon to record nature and indigenous languages before they vanish. That is the premise of Far From the Trees (Lejos de los árboles), Meritxell Colell Aparicio's second feature, which premiered in competition at the Locarno Film Festival on 13 August (Variety; Locarno Film Festival).
Adela, the film's 50-year-old protagonist, lives in Vienna but journeys deep into the Amazon with Lucho, a multilingual guide played by José Luis López Cama. Angélica Castelló — herself a sound artist and composer — takes the lead role, while Teresita Sánchez plays Paula, the housekeeper and nanny who anchors Adela's domestic life (Variety; Allegra Films).
Colell Aparicio's approach to image-making is layered. The film blends 4K digital footage with Super16mm film — the grainier, tactile stock used for past scenes — and weaves in archival material, creating distinct visual textures for different registers of memory. She co-edited the 120-minute feature with Ana Pfaff, a pairing that shapes the film's rhythm across its three interlocking timelines (Variety; Allegra Films).
The production spans three countries. Allegra Films (Spain), Animalita Films (Peru) and Exit Media (Italy) co-produced, a structure the film brought to the San Sebastian International Film Festival's Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum before cameras rolled (Cineuropa; San Sebastian Festival). The Locarno listing names Spain, Peru and Italy as the official production countries (Locarno Film Festival).
Colell Aparicio arrives at Locarno with a festival pedigree. Her debut, Facing the Wind, premiered in the Berlinale's Forum — a section devoted to formally adventurous cinema from around the world. Locarno's international competition, where Far From the Trees now sits, is one of the older juried prizes on the European circuit, and a premiere slot there places the film before the distributors and sales agents who determine whether it reaches screens beyond the festival (Variety).
What gives the film its quiet charge is the collision at its centre. Adela records sound for a living; the Amazon she enters is losing the very voices she wants to capture. The format choices — sharp digital present, softer film for the past — mirror that tension without announcing it. Castelló, cast from her own practice as a sound artist, carries the role with the authority of someone who knows what listening costs.
