Land and Shade

2015

1h 37m

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

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Drama

Alfonso is an old farmer who has returned home to tend to his son, who is gravely ill. He rediscovers his old house, where the woman who was once his wife still lives, with his daughter-in-law and grandson. The landscape that awaits him resembles a wasteland. Vast sugar cane plantations surround the house, producing perpetual clouds of ash. 17 years after abandoning them, Alfonso tries to fit back in and save his family.

Directors

César Augusto Acevedo

Writers

José Luis Torres Leiva(script consultant by)

Miguel Machalski(script consultant by)

César Augusto Acevedo(screenplay by)

Stars

Haimer Leal

Hilda Ruiz

Edison Raigosa

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Top cast

Alfonso

Alicia

Gerardo

Esperanza

Directors

César Augusto Acevedo

Writers

José Luis Torres Leiva(script consultant by)

Miguel Machalski(script consultant by)

César Augusto Acevedo(screenplay by)

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Review

Featured review

8/10

This film is much deeper than it appears to be. On the surface, it looks like a struggling poor family in a rural setting. Look again. On one level it is a family with their own set of relational problems. Like Tolstoy said, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." But this particular unhappy family is set against the socio-economic background of an impersonal agri-business. The agri-business, not only complicates their unhappiness, but also, slowly murders it's victims. It is not a huge, impossible leap of imagination to cast this story onto the laborers of Amazon or Uber - workers that slave for hours without bathroom breaks for ultra-rich, off-screen masters. The parallel is painfully present in this film. Never mind the intentional long shots of endless sugar cane fields that destroyed a once present beauty. Never mind the dark lighting of the family that remained. An important trivia here: the English translation of the title is wrong (imho). Sombra also means shadow. This family lives in a shadow. The title should be "Land and Shadow". But the shadow of what? That's what makes this film socially significant.

badelf21 Nov, 2021