Land and Shade
Land and Shade (Spanish: La tierra y la sombra) is a 2015 Colombian drama film written and directed by César Augusto Acevedo and produced by the production company Burning Blue.[1] It was screened in the International Critics' Week section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival[2] where it won the Caméra d'Or Award, France 4 Visionary Award and SACD Award.[3] The film has been in development since 2009 and has since received support and funding from several international institutions.[4][5][6][7]
Land and Shade | |
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Theatrical poster | |
Directed by | César Augusto Acevedo |
Produced by | Jorge Forero, Paola Pérez Nieto, Diana Bustamante |
Written by | César Augusto Acevedo |
Starring | Haimer Leal |
Cinematography | Mateo Guzmán |
Edited by | Miguel Schverdfinger |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | Colombia France Netherlands Chile Brazil |
Language | Spanish |
Plot
After 17 years, an old farmer named Alfonso returns to his home because his son is gravely ill, where the woman who was once his wife still lives, with his daughter-in-law and grandson. His house is surrounded by large sugar cane plantations, which produce ash rain that worsen, and most likely was the cause of the illness. Now, Alfonso will try to regain the love of his family and take care of them.
Cast
- Haimer Leal as Alfonso[4]
- Hilda Ruiz as Alicia
- Edison Raigosa as Geraldo
- Marleyda Soto as Esperanza
- Felipe Cárdenas as Manuel
Reception
The film received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 93% approval rating, based on 14 reviews, with an average score of 7.9/10. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating, the film has a score of 74 out of 100 based on 11 critics. Noel Murray from The A.V. Club wrote: "Acevedo has a wonderful command of visual storytelling, as evidenced by how well he frames those dark interiors; he and Guzmán [his cameraman] use every spare beam of light to illuminate the edges of his characters".[8] Adam Morgan from the Chicago Reader also gave a positive review from the film and its cinematography: "The film is beautifully composed and full of striking images, but Acevedo's ruthless depiction of hardship makes this hard to watch".[9] Peter Debruge from Variety wrote: "Cesar Acevedo's deliberately paced and distant-feeling debut works its way under audiences' skin, weaving a haunting allegory through painterly compositions.".[10]
References
- "Land and Shade (2015)". uniFrance Films. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
- "Selection of the 54th International Critics' Week". Semaine de la Critique. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
- John Hopewell and Elsa Keslassy (21 May 2015). "Cannes: 'Paulina,' 'Land and Shade' Top Cannes Critics' Week". Variety. Retrieved 21 May 2015.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
- "Land and Shade, Colombian feature film at Cannes 2015". Cinevista Blog. 20 April 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
- "Land and Shade selected for HBF+". Topkapi Films. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
- "'Land and Shade' selected for Cannes". El Tiempo. 20 April 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
- "Colombian film confirmed for Cannes". El Universal. 21 April 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
- Murray, Noel (14 June 2016). "Painterly, slow-paced Cannes winner Land And Shade is a promising debut". The A.V. Club.
- J.R. Jones (8 April 2016). "What's screening at the Chicago Latino Film Festival". Chicago Reader.
- Debruge, Peter (18 May 2015). "Film Review: 'Land and Shade'". Variety.
External links