Land and Shade

Land and Shade (La tierra y la sombra) is a 2015 drama film written and directed by César Augusto Acevedo. It was screened in the Critics' Week section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Caméra d'Or, France 4 Visionary Award and SACD Award. The film has been in development since 2009 and has since received support and funding from several international institutions. It is a co-production between Colombia, France, the Netherlands, Chile and Brazil.

Plot
Alfonso is an old farmer who returns home after 17 years to care for his only son, who is seriously ill. Upon arriving, he finds that everything he once knew no longer exists, as sugarcane monoculture has destroyed all the farms in the region. The only thing that remains almost unchanged is his old home: a humble white house and a small bench under the shade of an old, imposing saman tree. However, Alfonso must face the fact that he is returning as a stranger, as his family stopped waiting for him a long time ago.

His arrival awakens old passions and hatred in the heart of Alicia, his ex-wife, who has always refused to leave her property despite an invisible threat that haunts the imposing sugarcane labyrinths, filling everything with signs of destruction and death. Alfonso realizes that his whole family is in great danger and tries to get closer to them before it's too late. He will do everything possible to try to save them, even if it means erasing all traces of his existence.

The story, memory, and identity of everyone are on the verge of disappearing under a paradoxical idea of progress, and only a great sacrifice will give them the opportunity to reconcile and start a new life far away from that place where all hope seems lost.

Cast

 * Haimer Leal as Alfonso
 * 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". 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.".