Babak Jalali – Land #Berlinale2018

March 1, 2018

Babak Jalali - Land #Berlinale2018 fredfilmradio

Podcast | Download

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Babak Jalali, director of the film Land.

After many pre-production years, Babak Jalali’s third feature film Land has finally “landed” at the 68th Berlinale in the Panorama Section. The director, born in Iran but living in London, describes the long journey to the realization of the film and how the italian contribution, starting with the Torino Film Lab, was essential to the making of Land. The film, according to Jalali, is a a European co-production but it’s Italian in its soul and roots. Why do Europeans know nothing about that often forgotten world of American Indian reservations? Babak Jalali tries to answer while describing his intention of showing the American Indians’ situation with no pity but an empathetic approach. The key to the power of the film is also the cinematography so Jalali comments on his collaboration with DOP Agnes Godard.

Land: The Yellow Eagle family are Native American and live on the Prairie Wolf Indian Reservation. News reaches them that Floyd, the youngest son of the family, has died during military service in Afghanistan. The waiting begins to get his body back to the Reservation to be buried. The youngest surviving son Wesley, is an alcoholic. His brother’s death doesn’t really hit him as his only aim during the day is to get hold of beer. Wesley is in daily contact with the white population who run the liquor stores right outside the reservation. This uneasy relationship reaches unpleasant levels when acts of violence break out and he is directly affected. The eldest son, Raymond, is a recovering alcoholic with a wife and two sons. Although he feels a sense of responsibility for the extended family, he seems to feel too emasculated to do something about it. Until the troubles that have affected his two brothers force him to stand up and be a man again.

To discover more about the film, click here.