The movie
Our Land
In 2009, three men attempt to remove members of the Indigenous Chuschagasta community from their land in northern Argentina. Claiming ownership of the territory, the men arrive armed and kill community leader Javier Chocobar. The murder is captured on video. After nine years of protests, a trial is finally brought to court.
Description
Northern Argentina, 2009. The province of Tucumán is a fertile agricultural region that has long been home to the Chuschagasta community. Yet businessman Dario Amín claims ownership of the land. When he arrives with two associates to serve 300 members of the Chuschagasta community with an eviction notice, a confrontation erupts that ends with the murder of 68-year-old community leader Javier Chocobar. The killing is captured on video, but it takes another nine years of protests before those responsible are brought to trial. For Amín and his associates, the dispute is purely a business matter, but for the Chuschagasta community, their roots, identity, and very survival are at stake.
Urgent, uncompromising, and ambitious, Our Land is the first nonfiction work by Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (Zama, La Ciénaga). The film examines this tragic true story from multiple perspectives: the murder trial of the three men, the lives of Chocobar and his fellow Chuschagasta community members, and the centuries-old colonial legacy of exploitation, land theft, and dispossession across Latin America.
The result is a crime documentary that is both narratively compelling and a deeply immersive cinematic experience. Martel spent fourteen years making Our Land before it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The documentary received international acclaim and won awards in Locarno, London, and the United States.
