Muntanya Màgica

Living Wild in Spain

Muntanya Màgica sits in the Penedès wine region of Catalonia, one hour from the city of Barcelona. Esther Pallejà Lozano and Marc Cinanni did not stumble into this life. They deliberately traded the speed of the city for something slower, deeper, and harder to explain until you see it. What makes their story work is that it was never just theirs. Neighbours showed up. Community formed. The land responded. A personal decision quietly became something larger than two people and a forest in Catalonia.

The film opens with landscapes . Then the forest arrives — green, dense, and genuinely quiet. A space where meditation happens between the trees and yoga is not scheduled but inevitable. The main house, pool, guest house, caravan and gardens set the tone.

Canada

Before they were forest-dwelling rewilders, Marc and Esther were the ultimate urban power couple. Marc worked a career in content and international affairs, while Esther was a department head at Barcelona’s elite Institut del Teatre.

But in 2018, the high-status grind led to a total burnout. They didn’t just quit; they burned the boats and fled to a remote island off the Canadian Pacific coast. This wasn’t a holiday—it was a brutal, cold-turkey detox from modern society. Living “wild” in the Canadian elements stripped away their corporate identities and introduced them to the medicinal cannabis rituals that would eventually become Esther’s Healing Wild brand. That island was the forge that broke them down and gave them the grit to return to Catalonia and build Muntanya Màgica from the dirt up.

The land produces consistently. Fig trees, berry bushes, and gardens running tomatoes, zucchinis, lettuce, beets, and strawberries. Sage, rosemary, oranges, almonds, artichokes, pears, lemons, and olives all grow on site. A worm farm composts kitchen scraps into fertiliser. Land turtles, cat, dog and chickens move freely across the property. Birds have returned as water availability has increased. Water scarcity shapes daily practice at the retreat. Shower and bath water irrigates the gardens. Rainwater collects in multiple tanks.

Film Teaser

The documentary follows Marc and Esther’s daily life at the retreat. The program combines a calm place to rest with specialised programs. Creative practice running alongside the practical work — music, writing, couples retreats and even a cannabis theme. The film does not separate nature from the creative. Both come from the same source. The land generates food, water, and material. The people generate everything else.

The community section is the film’s strongest thread. Neighbours arrive weekly and work alongside each other. The tasks are ordinary — pruning, yard work, olive picking, renovations. Moreover, the repetition of it is the point. That consistency, week after week across seasons, is what makes a community rather than a collection of individuals who happen to share a postcode. The film documents that process without overstating it.

In short, Living Wild is a record of what it actually looks like to leave a city life behind and build something that functions on different terms. It is physically demanding and slow. It is also, the film argues, the better version of the choice.