Nuestra tierra

What constitutes ownership over a land? Is it a legal piece of paper? Or centuries of lived history? Lucrecia Martel’s vital documentary about the murder of Indigenous leader Javier Chocobar is a mixture of social and political cinema, exploring the remnants of colonialism in Argentina.

October 2009. Entrepreneur Dario Amín, accompanied by two associates in a mining venture, tries to evict the members of the Chuschagasta community from the land they inhabit in the north of Argentina – land that Amín claims as his own. The confrontation ends with the murder of Javier Chocobar, leader of the community. The entire incident is caught on video. Nine years later, after many protests, the trial of Chocobar’s murder begins. 

Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (Zama, IFFR 2018), who made Nuestra tierra over 14 years, exposes the corruption and racism entrenched in Argentinian institutions. The documentary combines recordings from court proceedings, interviews where members of the Chuschagasta community reconstruct their history, archival stills, sweeping drone shots of the territory and a soundtrack of local music. Martel dismantles power structures, unmasks linguistic biases and disentangles a bureaucratic web of dirty tricks. For Amín and his accomplices, the dispute over land is merely a matter of business. But, for the Chuschagasta community, it is a matter of their roots, identity and survival.

– Cristina Álvarez López

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