Audience Member
Along with the Russian film, 4, this is probably the strongest film in competition at the [url="http://www.worldfilmbkk.com/films/index.php?cid=01&id=163"]World Film Festival of Bangkok[/url]. The director [url="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1549797/"]Vimukthi Jayasundara[/url] was present for a Q&A afterward, but I'd pretty well already made up my mind about the film.
The action centers on one family, living in a desolate, sand-swept plain of Sri Lanka. Their boring, soul-crushing days are punctuated by encounters with the military.
In the mornings, a tank rolls by.
One day, while the man is on the job as a security guard, he's picked up by a troop truck, stripped of his clothes and left naked in a river, I guess for no reason other than the troops are bored.
See, Sri Lanka has been in a state of civil war for the past three decades or so. There is neither declared peace or war. So everyone lives pretty much in fear.
As a result, society has broken down, at least in the story presented in this film.
The man lives with his pretty young wife and his sister. The sister rides the bus each day to work, while the man works as a guard and the young wife hangs about. She's ripe for the picking, as a local soldier finds out.
There's also a little girl that hangs around. And an old man, who's also supposed to be a security guard but basically does nothing but drink, swim naked and tell the story about "Little Bird", a woman whose family was poor and could only give her a cup of rice for her dowry.
The sister is desparate for a way out of this village, and she urges her brother to leave the area.
As depressing as it all is, it's beautifully filmed, and even erotic at times, though the eroticism only illustrates that morals have completely gone out the window here.
The filmmaker had the cooperation of the military to make his film (hence the use of the tank and troop trucks), but once it was shown, it seems things changed politically and the military didn't like the way it was portrayed. The film was banned in Sri Lanka and the director has left his home country to live in France, where he studied filmmaking.
I think he was taking chance getting as close as Thailand, and indeed there were three Sri Lankans who had some strong words for him waiting for the Q&A session afterward. But they had only questions. And, after all, the film was only his opinion.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Very impressive debut film. This might be the most beautifully shot film of recent years. Style is very reminiscent of Antonioni plus Tarkovsky. Narrative events are opaque and character are held at a great distance. It's an interesting portrayal of people living under uncertain circumstances. Aesthetically it's incredible even if there's something missing to call it great.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/18/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Way too boring. What the hell happened, anyways?
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Little dialogue only adds to this film, and the cinematography is brilliant, as is character development. I do think you have to have an understanding of the Sri Lankan conflict to really be able to grasp the beauty and genius of this film.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/11/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Is there a Sri Lankan film industry? If it produced much else like "The Forsaken Land", I hope it gets a retrospective as thorough as the recent Romanian one. This is one for fans of Apichatpong and Iranian film. The director wisely keeps dialogue to a minimum and allows the landscapes and the characters' expressions speak for themselves.
Aside from stories of constant civil war and a couple of M.I.A. albums, I know very little about Sri Lanka. If this film is in anyway accurate (as I expect it is, given the government outrage), its a land of inexplicable contrasts. Serene forests are haunted by the remnants of war. Men can turn from protectors to vicitimizers at a moment's notice. This is one of the most promising debuts since 2004's "The Return". Although I'll be the first to admit that many of the details slipped through my fingers on first viewing, I'm very interested in making a return trip in the not-so-distant future.
Do make time to watch the 30 minute short film included on the New Yorker DVD. It's a documentary on Sri Lanka's walking wounded and despite being in rather sorry condition, is full of haunting imagery.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A l'image de la terrible guerre civile qui a ravage le Sri lanka durant de nombreuses annees, La terre abandonnee dresse un portrait sombre d'un pays, entre reve et legende, comme un appel au cesser le feu. On retrouve dans La terre abandonnee une sensibilite proche de celle a l'oeuvre dans Tropical Malady (2004) du realisateur Thailandais Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Les deux realisateurs donnent une image peu flatteuse de l'armee et s'attachent a montrer des corps libres voire sauvages. On retrouve aussi une reference aux contes et legendes que Apichatpong Weerasethakul utilise dans Tropical Malady a propos d'un homme qui peut etre transforme en creature sauvage, jonglant entre le reve et le conte tandis que Vimukhti Jayasundara utilise la legende de Petit oiseau. La maladie tropicale du realisateur Thailandais designe la folie d'amour a laquelle succombent les deux amants de Tropical malady tandis que les personnages de La Terre abandonnee semblent atteint d'une variante de la maladie tropicale qui les rend fou d'etre trop eloigne les uns des autres, prives de contact, d'amour et peut-etre de Dieux.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
Read all reviews
>
