The Forsaken Land

Name: The Forsaken Land
Genre: Drama
Released: June 22, 2006
Duration: 108 min
Rating: 70

2006

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Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

New Yorker Films | Release Date: June 22, 2006

Summary: A plotless look at life in Sri Lanka.

Director: Vimukthi Jayasundara

Genre(s): Drama

Runtime: 108 min

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Critic Reviews

Michael Wilmington

A stark, lyrical and affecting portrait of war's aftermath. Read full review

V.A. Musetto

Sparse of dialogue and plot (think Andrei Tarkovsky), the import - named best first film at Cannes 2005 - has to do with Sri Lanka's unending civil war and it's devastating effect on residents of a barren no man's land. Read full review

Jay Weissberg

There's poetry in The Forsaken Land -- not the written kind (there's barely any dialogue) -- but visual poetry replete with still, painterly compositions and finely nuanced lighting. Read full review

Manohla Dargis

Mr. Jayasundara studied film in France and has probably watched his share of classic European art cinema. Although his influences may originate closer to home (in interviews he has name dropped the venerated Sri Lankan auteur Lester James Peries), his use of landscape to convey states of mind suggests that he has more than a passing acquaintance with the work of Michelangelo Antonioni. Read full review

J. Hoberman

Beautiful but withholding, The Forsaken Land doesn't offer much in the way of explanation -- the soundtrack features more birdcalls than dialogue -- but the 27-year-old filmmaker's command of film language is evident and his evocation of postwar trauma is haunting. Read full review

J.R. Jones

Jayasundara dispenses with conventional story pacing to alternate long, static scenes with moments of revelatory lust or violence; as a press release states, the movie is "composed of uncanny set pieces portraying sex, death, and waiting," though its aesthetic achievement may lie in making all three feel like the same thing. Read full review

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FRETIYR

Mar 30, 2020

This is a great film about sri lanka in times of war and destruction. This film is great and very emotional.

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