Watch Land and Shade
- NR
- 2016
- 1 hr 38 min
-
7.1 (1,894)
Land and Shade is a Spanish-language drama film that was released in 2015. It is the first feature-length film from Colombian writer-director César Augusto Acevedo, who also serves as the film's cinematographer. The film tells the story of a family of sugarcane farmers in rural Colombia who are struggling to survive in the face of drought, poverty, illness, and family discord.
The film's protagonist is Alfonso (Haimer Leal), an old man who has returned to his family's sugarcane farm after abandoning it years ago to escape from his abusive wife Alicia (Hilda Ruiz) and to work in the city as a laborer. He is greeted warmly by his daughter Esperanza (Marleyda Soto), who is living on the farm with her young son Manuel and her husband Gerardo (Edison Raigosa), who has been stricken with a lung disease from working in the sugarcane fields.
Alfonso soon learns that his farm, which he left to his wife Alicia, has fallen into ruin. The sugarcane fields have withered from lack of rain, and the workers have gone on strike over wages and working conditions. Alfonso tries to appeal to Alicia to let him cultivate his portion of the land, but she stubbornly refuses, insisting that her authority as the head of the family be respected.
The film explores the tense relationship between Alfonso and Alicia, who is bitter and resentful towards him for leaving her and their children behind. The family's conflicts are intensified by the arrival of Alfonso's estranged son Rodrigo (Giovanny RodrÃguez), who has returned from working in the city to visit his dying father. Rodrigo is contemptuous of his sister's humble living conditions and the family's dependence on the sugarcane business, and he clashes with Alfonso over their conflicting visions for the farm's future.
As the family grapples with poverty and illness, Land and Shade reveals the harsh realities of life in rural Colombia, where small farmers are at the mercy of unpredictable weather patterns, corrupt business practices, and the ever-present threat of violence from armed groups. The film is a searing portrait of a family in crisis, struggling to survive in a world that has turned against them.
One of the most striking aspects of Land and Shade is its gorgeous cinematography. Acevedo employs a muted color palette and long, slow-moving takes to capture the rhythms of life on the farm, from the swaying sugarcane fields to the interminable wait for rain. The film's haunting score, composed by Camilo Montilla and Carlos GarcÃa, is also a standout, evoking a sense of mournful longing that is in perfect keeping with the film's elegiac tone.
Land and Shade has been praised by critics for its raw emotional power and its unflinching depiction of life on the margins. The film won the Caméra d'Or prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, as well as numerous other awards at film festivals around the world. It is a deeply affecting work that offers a powerful commentary on the social and economic realities of rural Colombia, and on the impact of human conflict on the natural world.
Land and Shade is a 2016 drama with a runtime of 1 hour and 38 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 7.1 and a MetaScore of 74.