Review: Palm Trees in the Snow (Palmeras en la nieve)
Based on the best-selling novel by Luz Gabás, Palm Trees in the Snow (Palmeras en la nieve) is a visually beautiful multi-generational romantic saga set on the island of Fernando Poo during the waning years of its colonization by Spain. Lest one think this is a rare cinematic exploration of Spain's colonial history, rest assured that such complexities are deeply shunted to the periphery in favour of the romantic trials and tribulations of its main characters.
The film begins with a young woman named Clarence (Adriana Ugarte) who, upon rifling through her recently deceased father's belongings, happens upon a fragment of a letter that reveals her aging uncle Killian (Celso Bugallo) has been secretly sending money to a family in Fernando Poo. Who is this family and why has he been financing them for all these years? Despite her mother Julia's (Petra Martinez) objections, Clarence decides to travel to the island to uncover the truth.
And so the film flashes back to 1954, when Killian (Mario Casas) and his older brother Jacobo (Alain Hernández) leave their sister and mother behind in the snow-capped mountains of Huesca in Northern Spain to join their father Anton (Emilio Gutierrez Caba) in Fernando Poo. Assigned to oversee the family's cocoa plantations, the homesick Killian struggles to adjust on the island of his birthplace, where he wants to be treated as one of the natives but is looked upon as an outsider instead. His time on the island is assuaged by the presence of Julia (Macarena García), a vivacious but level-headed young woman he's known since childhood, who offers friendship when not busy mooning over bad boy Jacobo, who'd rather spend his time taking full advantage of everything the island's night life has to offer.
Killian himself is not without romantic troubles. Just as good doctor Manuel (Daniel Grao) silently pines for Julia, Killian longs for Bisila (Berta Vazquez), the entrancing native he first sights by a waterfall. Their romance will be beset by innumerable obstacles, not the least of which is the burgeoning hostility between the natives and the colonialists, many of whom genuinely consider the island to be their home.
Shot on location in the Canary Islands, Huesca and Colombia, Palm Trees in the Snow is mostly an aesthetic battle between the scenery and the actors. Unfortunately, neither director Fernando Gonzalez Molina nor screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez can inject any sort of substance into this film. Whilst the overripe dialogue somehow works during the flashbacks, they are howlingly awful in the scenes featuring Clarence and Iniko (Djedje Apali), the initially hostile native guide who is soon teaching Clarence how to suggestively gyrate on the dance floor and saying things like "It's dormant, but only it knows how alive it is inside" when Clarence notes how she was named after a non-functioning volcano.
García is the film's MVP, energising the film with her presence and depth of playing. Unfortunately, the star of this epic is Casas, who may be an impressive slice of beefcake but who does not have it in him to convey anything resembling an emotion.
Palm Trees in the Snow (Palmeras en la nieve)
Directed by: Fernando González Molina
Written by: Sergio G. Sánchez; based on the novel by Luz Gabás
Starring: Mario Casas, Adriana Ugarte, Macarena García, Alain Hernández, Berta Vázquez, Djedje Apali, Daniel Grao, Laia Costa
