Land

I will go to almost any film at the Royal Cinema. They offer the best in the film industry. The theatre is used as an editing house during the day. The ‘arty’ films presented are only available in the evening or on the weekend. This film was Canadian produced and was shown at the Hot Docs festival.

The film shows the ugly side of the land grab in Nicaragua by American resort owners. I was most interested in the history of this troubled Central American country. We are shown news clips and given a historical background of the revolutions and counter revolutions in recent history.

The film was a bit disjointed and sometimes hard to keep it all straight. I did find the camera work also a little shaky.

We are introduced to some of the Americans who purchased land and had high hopes of starting resorts. The problem is that many of the land titles were under dispute. After the last revolution the land had been seized and distributed to the people of Nicaragua. Later the original owners were claiming their land back.

There were so many problems. The poor people were living in dire conditions. The resort owners were robbing the land and giving little back in return.

One young man was most upset that the baseball field had been destroyed. I was interested to learn that later on he became the mayor of this part of the country. Many of the resort owners failed to complete their projects. The area was left in a mess with unfinished buildings.

The country is so beautiful. It was upsetting to see the land being torn up. Apparently the Americans were not good to the people and didn’t provide extras such as schools and hospitals.

At the Q and A after the film we were told that there are still disputes over the land. I found the topic very interesting.

Unfortunately the film is only playing for one week. Documentaries are often a great education. I did learn so much. I judge these films differently from the Hollywood style of film. If it is playing at the Royal Cinema I know there is value to the film.