La película trata de un viaje a una isla remota.

In Spanish, tratar de is a fixed expression meaning to be about when talking about a book, film, story, etc.

• La película trata de... = The film is about...

Without de, tratar usually means something else, such as to treat or to deal with depending on context.

Examples:

• El libro trata de la guerra. = The book is about the war.
• El médico trata al paciente. = The doctor treats the patient.

So in this sentence, de is required.

Yes. La película es sobre un viaje... is understandable and common in everyday Spanish.

However, trata de often sounds a bit more natural or standard when describing the subject matter of a film, book, or story.

So both work:

• La película trata de un viaje...
• La película es sobre un viaje...

If you want a very typical phrasing for summaries, trata de is an excellent choice.

Because película is a feminine noun in Spanish, so it takes the feminine article la.

• la película
• una película

This is something you just have to learn with the noun. The ending -a often suggests a noun is feminine, and here that pattern works.

Nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine, so the ending alone does not tell you the gender.

Viaje is masculine, so you say:

• un viaje
• el viaje

You simply need to learn its gender as part of the word.

Because trata de must be followed by whatever the film is about.

Here, the thing the film is about is un viaje a una isla remota.

So the structure is:

• La película
  • trata de
    • un viaje a una isla remota

That means:

• The film
  • is about
    • a journey to a remote island

That a means to.

• un viaje a una isla remota = a trip/journey to a remote island

It shows the destination of the journey.

Compare:

• un viaje a Madrid = a trip to Madrid
• un viaje a una isla = a trip to an island

This is not the personal a. It is just the normal preposition a meaning to.

Because una isla means an island, while la isla means the island.

In this sentence, the island is being introduced as unspecified:

• a una isla remota = to a remote island

If you said a la isla remota, that would suggest a specific island already known from the context:

• to the remote island

In Spanish, contraction only happens with:

• a + el = al
• de + el = del

There is no contraction with la, los, las, un, or una.

So:

• a el puerto → al puerto
• a una isla stays a una isla

In Spanish, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• una isla remota = a remote island

This is the most normal word order.

You can sometimes move adjectives before the noun, but that often changes the tone or emphasis. For a straightforward description, isla remota is the standard order.

Because adjectives in Spanish usually agree with the noun in gender and number.

Here, isla is feminine singular, so the adjective must also be feminine singular:

• isla remota

Compare:

• un lugar remoto = masculine singular
• una isla remota = feminine singular
• unas islas remotas = feminine plural

Actually, the Spanish sentence does include an article: un viaje = a journey / a trip.

Spanish often uses articles in places where English also does, but sometimes the exact usage differs. In this sentence, un is needed because we are talking about a particular kind of thing: a journey.

So:

• de un viaje = about a journey

Without un, the sentence would sound incomplete or unnatural here.

• viaje is a noun: trip / journey
• viajar is a verb: to travel

In this sentence, you need a noun because the film is about a journey:

• La película trata de un viaje...

Examples:

• Quiero viajar. = I want to travel.
• El viaje fue largo. = The trip was long.

Yes. Tratar de can also mean to try to in some contexts, especially before an infinitive.

For example:

• Trato de estudiar. = I try to study.

But in your sentence, trata de is followed by a noun phrase:

• de un viaje a una isla remota

So here it clearly means is about, not tries to.

The accent mark shows where the stress goes: pe-LÍ-cu-la.

Without the accent, Spanish stress rules would suggest a different pronunciation, so the written accent is necessary.

It helps you pronounce the word correctly:

• película

Written accents in Spanish are very important because they show stress and can sometimes distinguish between different words.

In standard Spain Spanish, viaje is pronounced roughly like:

• bee-AH-khe

A few notes:

• v and b sound very similar in Spanish
• j is pronounced like a strong throaty h sound, not like the English j
• the stress is on the first syllable of viaje

So viaje does not sound like English voyage, even though the words are related.

Yes, but it is a slightly different structure.

You can say:

• La película trata de un viaje...
• La película se trata de un viaje...

However, La película trata de... is usually the simpler and more direct option.

Very often, se trata de is used in more general statements such as:

• Se trata de una historia real. = It is about a true story.

For your sentence, trata de is perfectly natural.