The Land Left Behind

Original Title: La Tierra Se Quedó

What is left when you can’t take anything with you?

Three violently displaced individuals fight against their destinies and attempt to build a new life away from home.
Germany/Colombia 2010, Documentary, 77 min

Solangel, Ruben and Teodoro walk around through the chaos of the densely populated city of Bogotá. They are looking for food, money and a little justice. They feel the painful experiences of the past; all of them were violently forced to leave their lands. They take hold of the new lives forced upon them and fight their conflicts with dignity, endurance and some humor.

“The Land Left Behind” tells of the fate that befalls three people who have ended up in the Moloch that is the Colombian city of Bogotá. On a daily basis, Solangel, Ruben and Teodoro walk about through the chaos of dirt, noise and crowds. There’s always a challenge: they have to find money, food and work for themselves and their families to survive. A few months back they had a small piece of land, work and family and friends around them. As a result of brutal violence and threats from the FARC guerillas, paramilitary units and the military, they were forced to leave their home.

The centre of Solangel’s life is her children. In Bogotá she lives with two of them. Although Frandiwn, the elder boy living with her, is lazy and prefers to stay in bed as long as possible, Solangel depends on his help. In the evenings after school, he somewhat reluctantly sells the empanadas that his mother has prepared during the day. Before Solangel goes shopping at lunchtime, she carefully applies her make-up. Holding her little boy by the hand, she walks through the city to the butcher and the other shops to secure her meager income. Her biggest worry, however, concerns her eldest son Duver. Solangel has heard nothing from him in ten years, since he was taken from their home village by the FARC. In the hope that her message will somehow reach her son, she gets on stage at a big demonstration and speaks to the cameras and the crowds.

Teodoro is in Bogota with his wife and eight children; they live together in two small rooms in an outlying district. Although he takes care of broken light bulbs at home now and then, most of the time he is actually out alone. He sells traditional craftwork. With an inconspicuous plastic bag in his hand, he goes everywhere and sells the richly decorated hats and bags that are produced in the villages of his indigenous tribe, the Zenu. When he can afford it, he even travels away from Bogotá to a few small villages, where the new goods are produced: people of all ages sit between wooden huts and among animals. They knot the typical Caña Flecha bands by hand. The situation of the tribe is nevertheless, extremely complicated.

Ruben is forced to attend the courses run by the government that have been put on especially for displaced population. For attending the workshops that last several months they are paid a few pesos, out of which they can barely pay the bus fare. Ruben constantly complains about the system. He is not afraid to speak out about how unfair and corrupt he thinks the government’s measures are. As a farmer in the country, he was able to live well, but at nearly 70 years of age and with poor eyesight, he is lost in the city. His pleasure lies in the women he meets and the songs he sings. Ruben loves to flirt and joke. For an 80-year-old woman who is ironing clothes on a small table he even makes up a song because he wants to get her to dance.

The yearning for the countryside, and the desire to return there, is something that the three fundamentally have in common. Like daydreams, images of vast landscapes appear to them time and again in their daily lives: vast rivers, green forests, the endless sky and the sea. The peace and freedom of the countryside is in great contrast to life in the loud and oppressive city in which Solangel, Ruben and Teodoro must live at the moment.

Universidad de Cine y Television HFF Konrad Wolf en coproducción con Blikfilm y el Instituto Goethe presentan un documental escrito y dirigido por Juan Sarmiento G.   Montaje Martin Reimers   Sonido Directo Christian Simon, Jean Collot   Diseño Sonoro Johannes Varga   Mezcla de sonido Silvio Naumann, Johannes Varga   Música Cesar Diaz   Cinematografía Juan Sarmiento G.   Productor ejecutivo Holger Lochau   Productor Tilman Kolb   Apoyado por la GTZ con fondos del BMZ y Filmbüro Bremen

Festival History

as per 2010-02-15

World Premiere
50. Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias – Official Competition
25.02.-05.03.2010 – Cartagena, Colombia

XXII Edición de Rencontres Cinémas d’Amérique Latine – Panorama
19.03.-28.03.2010 – Toulouse, France

28th International Film Festival of Uruguay
26.03.-03.04.2010 – Montevideo, Uruguay

5th Monaco Charity Film Festival
05.05.-11.05.2010 – Monte Carlo, Monaco

Contact

Festivals & Distribution
Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen (HFF) “Konrad Wolf”
University of Film and Television
Marlene-Dietrich-Allee 11
D-14482 Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany
T: 0049 (0)331 6202 564
F: 0049 (0)331 6202 568
E: distribution@hff-potsdam.de
www.hff-potsdam.de

Technical Specifications

Screening format: HDCAM 1080/50i PAL, 16:9 Dolby Stereo.
Also available on DigiBeta PAL and DigiBeta NTSC.

IMDB