Land and Shade

One can see a large scale banyan tree surrounded by an equal vast, mysterious yet ambiguous milieu. There is a house, in other words, a cottage, and a road, surrounded and guarded by large crops.

Land and Shade is a Columbian film that is extremely slow and was very difficult for me to finish. The actors all showed little in the way of energy or emotion and the direction was very slow and deliberate.

Beautifully shot, full of long contemplative takes, this story of the hardship of a family who work for a sugar-cane farm in rural Columbia has many powerful moments, and much righteous anger at what the large farm does both to the local ecology and to the underpaid (or NOT paid) workers. And it only grew on 2nd viewing when I went into it prepared for it's slow pace and understated and quiet emotionality.

Not everybody's pick of the year. Everybody does not know this film even exist.