Review of The Land

The wide variety of characters makes the story very engaging and alive, it makes the village feel almost real. This is important because everyone is affected in different ways by the political oppression and the selfish interests of a few. The acting is superb, especially Mahmoud Al Meleji who is amazing. The cinematography is mostly vivid and organic, it's never a distraction or anything too pretentious. The music was alright, but the non-diegetic peasant songs felt a little off since they seemed a little pamphletary and hopeful for the specific context of this village. My only big problem with this film is that it leaves some important loose ends such as the story about the boy (Muhammad Al Saqqa ) with whom the film starts as some kind of coming-of-age, and then the killing of Elwani which seems completely random and filmed in a poor way. Then most of these characters start lacking depth, always talking about the same issues and repeating actions that have almost no consequences. Most of the problems are solved easily, but from both sides, so the struggle feels more like a summary than a chaotic and emotional situation, and when it reaches the end it seems too abrupt, because it only focuses on one character, forgetting about everyone else and the village. I think I can understand why this film is important for the Egyptians and it's definitely worth watching since it is an universal story, but I get the feeling it's more important for what it represents rather than what it really is.