Land and Shade

The only thing that remains almost unchanged is his old home: a humble white house and a small bench under the shade of an old, imposing saman tree.

His arrival awakens old passions and hatred in the heart of Alicia, his ex-wife, who has always refused to leave her property despite an invisible threat that haunts the imposing sugarcane labyrinths, filling everything with signs of destruction and death.

The story, memory, and identity of everyone are on the verge of disappearing under a paradoxical idea of progress, and only a great sacrifice will give them the opportunity to reconcile and start a new life far away from that place where all hope seems lost.

Club wrote: "Acevedo has a wonderful command of visual storytelling, as evidenced by how well he frames those dark interiors; he and Guzmán [his cameraman] use every spare beam of light to illuminate the edges of his characters".

[9] Peter Debruge from Variety wrote: "Cesar Acevedo's deliberately paced and distant-feeling debut works its way under audiences' skin, weaving a haunting allegory through painterly compositions.".