Land and Shade

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

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". 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". 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.".