The Forsaken Land (2005/New Yorker Films DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: C+
Viumukthi
Jayasundara’s The Forsaken Land
(2005) takes place during Ski Lanka’s devastating civil war, but finds constant
wide space where it is not necessarily taking place as we find an isolated
couple who are together (she is pregnant) and they are being watched. Not by the military, but by children in the
neighborhood who have nothing else to do and are discovering their sexuality,
among other things.
The
military dies eventually show up with orders that changes the peaceful lives of
some, but there is a deeper horror the film wants to explore and that turns out
to include some sick private behavior that echoes the countries genocide and
the loss of life, freedom, joy, happiness and a future that the devastation of
the war has wrought.
I liked
the film enough to say it is worth a look for the curious and like the silent
passages and visual qualities that are trying to say something, but the
director may be saying things only he understands and it does not always add up
as much as I hoped it would. Still, it
is a mature, important and sometimes hard-to-watch work that deserves respect
and won the Cannes Camera D’Or for a reason.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is soft, with some aliasing errors, but
the print is in good shape, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has its patches
of silence and is not bad overall, but don’t expect any Pro Logic
surrounds. Extras include an informative
booklet on the film and Sri Lanka with a statement by the director and the DVD
adds a trailer and the short film The
Land Of Silence; a half-hour black & white film the director made in
2001 that ties in with this feature well.
- Nicholas Sheffo
