Jugu Abraham s review sums this up well and there's not much I want to add. The director uses film language to make very effective use of landscape and mise en scene, such as the burnt out bus. The bus and the journey the two characters go on is like a metaphor for life, we keep repeating ourselves, or those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it. Images from this keep coming back to my mind such as the toy boat which opens the film. Use of visual cues like this indicate a skilled film maker in that they elicit an emotional response. Moving you to tears while completely avoiding sentimentality. I saw this at The London African Film Festival and thought it incredibly powerful, really moving, emotionally quite draining. Whats great about African cinema is its seriousness, its willingness to engage with important issues. For enthusiasts of African visual media and those willing to make the conceptual leap necessary to appreciate new cultural forms, this is highly recommended. I will just add this seems to me a fusion of African and European sensibilities. The poetic realism has an obvious European influence but there's nonetheless something distinctly African there, and I m not just meaning the setting. There's a whole thing about journeys, returning and fatalism, things being set, things being a certain way. See it yourself, I think it will leave you like it left me, wondering.........or wandering?
Review of Sleepwalking Land
