Palm Trees in the Snow (2015)

Great Film overall

A Disappointing Continuation

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I rarely cannot finish watching a movie, but finally gave up on this one with just 30 minutes left. The dubbing was dreadful, which had a negative impact on the acting performances, but the characters and narrative lacked depth and appealed to stereotypical typecasting of white males, particularly the lead character Killian, as victims of circumstance rather than perpetrators of evil in the history of colonialism; black women were portrayed as beautiful, oversexed seducers and black men mostly as stupid and violent. Rather than shedding light on the real history of Portuguese occupation of Guinea, it perpetrated stereotypes, including white women craving sex from dangerous, muscled, well-endowed black men. The main reason I watched the movie for as long as I did was the exceptional cinematography, which was breathtaking.

I loved this movie. It has to be one of the best movies I have seen in quite some time. It was almost 3 hours but I could have watched another hour for sure. I am not a big fan of subtitles but this time they weren't a huge deal. I was so into the movie! I would highly recommend this fabulous movie.

The Cinematographic transposition of Luz Gabás' (first) fine novel.It's a wonderful story, very well adapted for the screen by Sergio G. Sánchez (screenplay) and Fernando González Molina (Director).It's a great emotional tableau, dealing with Universal themes.So no matter what age, race or gender you are: you will surrender to the romantic charm of Equatorial Africa at the end of the Colonial Era.

The tells the story of Kilian (Mario Casas); a young white worker that on 1958 arrives to Equatorial Guinea with his older brother to work (as a white manager) on a cacao plantation; and fell in love with a local native (not acceptable by the natives and due to the political turmoil become something forbidden). In the present time; Kilian's niece decides to visit the place to find out information about her family history; so the tale become structured as a mix of flashbacks.If the intention was criticism on Spanish colonialism; the movie limits the attack to a few bad seeds on both sides and the obvious cruelty (locals were paid but punished like slaves) is mostly diluted. In fact the portrait of the liberated Equatorial Guinea is far more depressing and cruel than the old one. The movie seems to say "you left us and see what you got into".While the technical aspects of the movie are excellent (camera work, FX, action and/or violent scenes, sound effects), the editing somewhat confusing. If you do not pay attention to some names you will get lost in many characters relations.There are also a few unnecessary scenes that make the movie lag.The acting department is reasonable but on the white side; nobody really shines. On the native (black) side, performances are stronger and passionate even when characters do not have a lot of development.As many European productions; there are some violent and plenty of nudity and (moderated) sex scenes. In Spain the movie was consider PG but like most of Europe; but I am pretty sure it will get an R in USA.In brief; it is an interesting (but not perfect ) movie worth a look