Netflix’s Polish satire The Land aka Kraj is a 2021 anthology film that tells six different stories with the same theme of how some everyday activities can drive you off the edge to do something unexpected. Each segment of the film is written and directed by different directors: Veronica Andersson directs ‘Galeria’, Filip Hillesland directs ‘Mieszkanie’, Mateusz Motyka directs ‘Supermarket’ and Maciej Slesicki is the director for ‘Polacy na drodze’, ‘Rodzinna firma’, ‘Sylwester’. The film is 1 hour 40 minutes long with Polish audio and English subtitles. Variety of actors star in the film including Violetta Arlak, Kamil Balicki, Adam Bobik, Danuta Borsuk, Joanna Glen and others.
– Netflix’s The Land review does not contain spoilers –
– (Trigger Warnings: Violence, Bloodshed) –
The Land: Six Life Changing Incidents
Watching this film somehow reminds you of the style Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos uses in his story, especially in the 2015 film The Lobster. The story feels absurd but necessary and relatable. At times you’d laugh at the wrong instances and find it offensive that you just laughed, maybe at someone being murdered or abused. But that is the fun of the absurdity in this film, that it never hits your moral but simply adds the satire it represents in your life.
We meet six different people, whose names are never so explicitly mentioned. These people/families include- a police general fed up with reckless driving, a man on parole who is unable to protect his daughter from a kidnapper, a family hit with a tax raid, an art exhibitioner whose boudoir art forms are disrespected, a family with a tenant who won’t pay the rent or leave and husbands with wives who are unfaithful. Our characters are put in difficult situations, which seemingly can be sorted without gore and bloodshed. However, the incidents they encounter reach them at a critical time when the lid is about to blow.
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The film is minimalistic and does not use too many subplots or characters when telling a particular story. It serves as a thriller because what happens is so unexpected, you catch yourself shocked and goofy. Kraj tries to depict the grey nature of the world and the people who live in it. It subtly walks you through incidents that are unacceptable, but your conscience would still try to reason it out. Our characters, however, don’t as they have reached their limit to tolerate everything wrong in the world.
The film plays with your beliefs at times: Did you laugh when the guy in the supermarket hits people to extract his child from the hands of the kidnapper? Did you rejoice at his victory? Did you feel sad for the innocent sacrifice? Do you think he deserves to walk free or into prison? The complexity of thoughts that grabs you as you watch simple, plain everyday stories is stunning and impressive. It leaves a mark on you without you even knowing it and, by the time the film wraps, you are left wondering if what you felt was right or wrong.
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Another beautiful thing in the film is the open ending few of the stories get. For instance, what happens to the guy in the supermarket? Or, the art exhibitioner and the director? These are blanks left for the audience to fill in according to their choice, making the film somewhat interactive to an extent.
The Land: Final Verdict
The Land movie aka Kraj (2021) is a film that deserves to be watched without holding bias and prejudice. This film needs your clean slate to contemplate your life and feelings. If you don’t, you are going to watch it halfway to think that surreal humour is not even a genre of filmmaking.
You can watch The Land aka Kraj movie now on Netflix.
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