User Reviews

The French filmmaker François Truffaut once claimed that every film about war ended being "pro-war" or glorifying war in any way or another, thus making impossible the existence of a true antiwar movie.

But I do think this little short by Nina Paley really did a pretty good job here where other films fail at the moment of delivering its message. Under the lens of a very bitter irony (Emphasized by the solemn, idealized song which sharply contrast with the displayed imagery) the horror, cruelty and even stupidity of war is shown in a way where there is no room for exaltation or spectacularity , only ridicule: An endless buffonery where all the endless atrocities comitted through history in the name of God and country are nothing more than a grotesque, absurd carnage carnival where Death is the only winner.

More than a decade later, this short hasn't lost its impact. If anything, it feels more relevant than ever.

And tragically enough, it seems it will continue being even more relevant in the upcoming years...

A film does not need to be long to make an impact. A film also does not have to be live action to make a lasting impression. This is what American filmmaker Nina Paley proves here with her work "This Land Is Mine". It is from 2012, so will have its 5th anniversary next year and it is an animated collection of important battles that mankind fought with each other. People with a bigger interest in history than myself will probably find the battle scenes much more interesting than I did, also with the cultures represented in there. But i mostly enjoyed the film for the ending, in which we see that Death is having one hell of a time (no pun intended!) with all the wars and how he keeps reaping corpses on a daily basis because of these. And the song we hear while the film goes on is pretty memorable as well. This was probably closer to a 4 stars out of 5 than to a 2 stars out of 5. I very much enjoyed the watch. Too bad those who really are concerned in here will most likely never see it. Don't protect your land! Protect your people!