Buried Land (2010) User Reviews

A wasted evening at the Tribeca Film Festival

[dbborroughs · 2/10 · 22 April 2010]

The film begins as a film crew descends into tunnels in the Bosnian country side heading toward what is believed to be a complex of pyramids, larger than the ones in Egypt. From there we watch as the crew films the people of the town and the guide from the area comes to terms with his past.

Well, I think that's what they were aiming for. What they got was a great opening three minutes and a great closing three minutes. In Between they produced 80 of the most pretentious minutes I've ever seen.

I was bored silly. I wanted to walk out but I kept hoping that one of the characters was going to get blown up in a left over mine field. It didn't happen and I ended up staying all the way to the end.

Its a film that nominally is mix of fact and fiction. The trouble is that after the first couple of minutes we never learn anything, neither about the pyramids nor about the characters, all but one is best described as ciphers. At a certain point the film jettisons the American character making the film in favor of the guide who has been mostly closed mouthed. He is some one who says he left the town years before during the war. He takes up with one of the women in the village (the only character that is a character). He then has doubts and tries to fashion the film into a music video pressing the people into helping him. By this time the film has gone off the rails by making huge jumps in the story that are never explained.

The film is clearly meant to mean something with the repeated requests of the filmmakers when they are filming "don't look at me. Look up. look over here. Look down" its a patter that leads to the notions at the end of the film...to what end I have no clue.

In all honesty the first half of the film almost amounts to something, but the film is so full of things unsaid, the film is so full of longing looks that that the film never amounts to more than a silly joke. I mean they never tell us anything. We're just asked to ponder if the pyramids are real or not again and again.

The second half of the film where the red headed filmmaker disappears and we're left with the guide who is now the filmmaker and he's planning a huge festival (don't ask it makes no sense) is a near total loss. The music used for the film is good, and the final moments elicit some sort of feeling, but the rest of it is not worth the effort. I used the term "mumble core docudrama at its most pretentious" in my notes.(I was taking way too many notes while watching this which is always a bad sign) It's a long drawn out affair that basically could be cut down to four quick pieces of material in stead of spread out over 40 minutes. Guide says he was from the town before the war, the music video where he tries to get his vision down and fails, The disco scene where its revealed as he's not who he says he is and then the final scene.

The final half of the film changes everything from a film about pyramids and belief into a shaggy dog story about a man trying to find his identity in the wake of war.

Added to everything else final shift to something else just makes this film irredeemably unfocused and rambling.

I won't get into the weak acting and the huge plot holes because I don't have time.

The most telling is that the film should have been made by Werner Herzog who could have actually kept all the nonsense together.

It was a waste of my evening and I basically ran out the door when the credits began to roll... The applause was the weakest reaction I've ever seen to a film at a film festival, and its quite possibly the worst film I've ever seen at a film festival (though in its favor its not the worst film I've ever seen from a film festival) This is one to avoid.

Wonderful story completely squandered

[jeremyleewilliams · 1/10 · 7 December 2010]

Buried Land is a self-indulgent and pretentious film. There is something great to be made here, drama or documentary, about the story of the 'discovery' of three ancient pyramids in the Bosnian village of Visnoko but instead this film chooses to travel on its own egotistical, navel-gazing path, and, quite laughably, places itself at the centre of such a remarkable story, entirely it seems, to give us a few trite lessons about truth, self-discovery and, on the way, film. The gravity and depth of the subject matter and a potentially wonderful cast of local people from the town itself are squandered almost entirely, becoming bit-part players to the directors' own dramatic designs. It is because of the potential here, truly a gift to any filmmaker, that Buried Land is such a frustrating and irritating watch. Even judged by the artifice that the film creates for itself, it remains a failure, especially through amateurish acting from the professionals in the cast and leaden direction. This film seems to be positioning itself as post-modern and genre-busting but the result is nothing but disappointing. In fact the films rather obvious exploration of the idea of truth - that there are no absolutes - seems to reinforce the opposite in regard to filmmaking. If you want to make a film that can retain an audience you need a great story, well told. Well they had the former but failed to deliver the latter. That three quarters of the people sat around me in the theatre left before the end clearly indicates the verdict Buried Land deserves but not its subject matter - and that is the real travesty here.

Great quest for buried answers!

[JamesWight · 8/10 · 21 May 2010]

I saw this at Tribeca having been encouraged to by various means and I have to say it certainly lived up to expectations and compared favourably with the other films in competition.

This is an unusual set-up in that we begin very documentary style and by the end of it, we seem to have slipped into a fictional tale about the filmmaker who eventually takes control of the work itself...kind of. It's hard to explain, which is probably a good sign..and it's not entirely obvious when this shift occurs. There is, however no conclusion to the story - it's pretty much left open to interpretation. In fact we still don't know if the hills/pyramids are real or made up for the film...or the film within the film. The layers of sub-plots along with the two interwoven states of reality and fiction can be at times confusing yet compelling - this is not an ordinary movie. I suppose this construct may upset certain audiences and at the screening there were one or two bemused faces although most i spoke to were excited about it and caused some positive debate. Personally, I enjoyed it immensely. There are hints of Godard as various castings take place and close framed pieces to camera...some nice rough hard edits and hand-held camera contrasting the otherwise crafted, relaxed East European image and pace. The sound and picture grade notably switched in these different modes...sometimes more subtly than others but there's certainly a lot hidden in this film and I feel the need to see it again.

Best scenes are the hilarious 'festival' that mounts on the hilltop.. a playful comment on film-making and cultural representation...the optimistic enthusiasm shown by the local residents being pushed by an eager, yet perhaps equally deluded Emir is a big pay off after the slow build. The music seems very authentic and supports the narrative well..along with some interesting sound design. The club scene and some of the subterranean sequences were particularly immersive and engaging.

Buried Land is almost two films in one, which is nothing new, but here there are many surprises and nicely unanswered questions. Ambiguity certainly rules from the outset so if you like a bit of spoon-fed entertainment with a solid outcome, this may not be for you. If you're looking for hidden treasures, there might be a little bit here...