Watching this movie has been an extraordinary experience.
The capacity of the Director and the Actors to reproduce and involve the spectator in the structure of feelings that characterizes Kosovo in the aftermath of the atrocities of the conflict with Serbia is truly majestic.
The raw desolation and pain of the characters is not morbose though: instead they are poetically transfigurated through silences and short, cutting sentences.
It's a movie that goes beyond any simplification, beyond nationalistic polarizations.
It's Art that celebrates Life, inspiring hope and the potential for rebirth of the Human Spirit.
The Land Within
2022 [ALBANIAN]
Action / Drama / Mystery / Thriller
5.9/10
296
Plot summary
After years of exile, Remo, an orphan, returns to his childhood village in the Balkans. He must help his adoptive cousin, Una, with the exhumation of a mass grave that contains most of their family members buried there during the war. But the bodies reveal family secrets that will make Remo and Una question their past and their future. A film about the possibility of truth in a place that only knows survival.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
August 26, 2023 at 04:52 AM
Director
Top cast
Movie Reviews
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Balkanian Cinematographic Masterpiece
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Not only a great "slow-burn", it's emotionally incendiary.
- Watched on HBO Max -
The incipit is pretty simple : a young man returns to his homeland in Kosovo after years of exile. Once he arrives, he's faced with a place that has changed during his absence. Violence, war and time has sweeped the place, like and invisible broom.
That's when Una (played by Luana Bajrami) comes in. Not only she is now the boss of the family, she also radiates the screen with a dazzling performance. Every little gesture, smirk or word carries meaning, carries weight, and above all, emotion. She is a pleasure to watch, and the arc of her character is quite big, yet unexpected.
The way it's filmed and staged is a great example of creativity. Many will be rebuffed by the slowness of the film, but it delivers strongly.
Some would say it's a "slow burn" ; I found it emotionally incendiary. 8.9/10.
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Great narrative
After seeing this movie at a festival, I've spent a long moment thinking about the incredible quality of the dramatic structure of the movie. The land within faces a topic we barely know our days, I mean war and it's mid-term consequences on our destinies. There is something very similar to Jarmusch's "Permanent vacation" in the construction of the plot. A kind of loser goes back to his birth place and hangs out with his cousins. The difference lies in the nature of the trip. War doesn't leave any place for emptiness, no place for humour neither, on the contrary it feeds bodies and further generations with new narratives. You cannot treat such topic without mastering the narrative science and I guess this has been a complete performance. I am looking forward to see this movie again.
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