Land (2021 Film)
6.5 /10 2 Votes
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Runtime 89 minutes Genre Drama Aspect Ratio 1.66 : 1 Filming Locations Alberta, Canada Language English Director Robin Wright Writers Jesse Chatham, Erin Dignam Composer Ben Sollee,Time for Three Box office $2.6 million (As of 2021) Edited by Anne McCabe, Mikkel E.G. Nielsen Cinematography Bobby Bukowski Distributed by Focus Features Country United States, United Kingdom, Canada Produced by Allyn Stewart,Lora Kennedy,Peter Saraf, Leah Holzer Production Co Cinetic Media, Nomadic Pictures, HanWay Films, Flashlight Films, Big Beach Release Date January 31, 2021 (Sundance), February 12, 2021 (United States), May 28, 2021 (United Kingdom) Similar Promised Land (2012 film), Things We Lost in the Fire (film), Sherrybaby | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Land (2021) is a drama film directed by Robin Wright and it was her first attempt at film directing. The screenplay of the film is done by Erin Dignam and Jesse Chatham.
Contents
Plot
LAND - Official Trailer [HD] - In Theaters February 12
This film can be classified as a confident dramaabout numerous forms of isolation. The lead character in the film Edee is faced with a horrible tragedy which makes her isolated emotionally. At times, the lingering grief even makes her suicidal. To mirror how alone she felts inside, she decides to isolate herself physically and goes to a remote cabin in an attempt to live off the land.
We can say this film is about two deeply emotionally wounded people who find purpose in one another. As the film progresses, the audience becomes well aware of one person's insignificance against the strength and beauty of Mother nature. The movies suggest isolation is not the answer for dealing with grief, but a real human connection can cure us of such deep grief.
The director does a good deal of character work in the film’s first thirty minutes with almost no dialogue. The film starts when the audience finds Edee driving to a remote cabin in the mountains and looks pretty careless about her safety. She doesn't even feel the need for a vehicle up there. Not only that, but she is almost entirely unprepared to deal with Mother nature partly because of her suicidal nature. It is as if she is inviting Mother Nature to take her away from her miseries. Winter is coming, and she doesn't have enough supplies. What more, she doesn’t know how to hunt or trap an animal if she had to. All this conveys the message to the audience that Edee thinks if she dies there, so be it. The audience feels they are witnessing someone being slowly drown, hundreds of miles away in the ocean.
And then the movie shifts gears. It introduces two new characters to the audience a hunter named Miguel and a nurse named Alawa. Both of these characters save Edee’s life on multiple occasions, and Miguel also becomes an unexpected friend and even teacher to Edee. Miguel promises not to pass on any information regarding the outside world to Edee so that she can maintain her self-isolation. Instead of that, he gives her tools to help her survive in the wild and leaves her alone. As it turns out to be, Miguel also has some grief and trauma of his own, which he has to deal with on his own, and that is why he is on the hunting trip.
Review
In the film, the cinematographer Bobby Bukowski and the director strike the right balance between close-up shots, which expose the character's trauma, and lyrical shots, which let the audience enjoy the gorgeous backdrop. There is no doubt that “Land” is a beautiful film which also has a sense of danger attached to it. You can say that "Land" has a finely tuned balance between the beauty of this world and the various hidden dangers of this beauty that can kill you, from hungry bears to brutal winter snowstorms and high cliffs. The editors of the film Anne McCabe & Mikkel E.G. Nielsen deserve a pat on the back for finding this perfect balance.
Writers of the film Erin Dignam and Jesse Chatham have withheld the details about what has driven Edee to a solitary place like this. The only clues the audience gets are brief flashbacks of her sister Emma who is seen begging Edee not to end Edee’s life, and some glimpses of a boy and a man who seems to be Edee’s lost family. To summarize, “Land” is a story of unimaginable grief which even changes the world around you and compels you to run far away to some isolated place. In a nutshell, Land is a stark, gloomy story that the audience will also start to feel Edee’s deep ongoing sadness with her.
One of the interesting facts about the film towards its end is that it is more effective in its silence than its dialogue. For example, a simple shot of a man with closed eyes sitting on a porch and sunlight falling his face can be more influential than an overwritten monologue.
