Meritxell Colell Aparicio’s “Far From the Trees” is reviewed as a deeply personal, contemplative drama about Adela, a Mexican sound artist travelling through the Peruvian Amazon to record nature and endangered indigenous languages. The film links her present-day journey with memories of childhood, family relationships and inherited trauma, using sound and landscape to explore how language can evoke both comfort and pain.

Premiering in competition at Locarno, the film combines 4K digital, Super 16mm and archival footage to give different textures to present experience and memory. Angélica Castelló plays Adela, who works with multilingual local guide Lucho while confronting recollections of her left-wing Catalan family, grandparents and nanny Paula; the review praises the film’s sensory approach, editing and intimate yet ambitious scope.