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“The World Isn’t So Small We Need to Massacre People to Steal Their Land”: LANDMARKS by Lucrecia Martel Premiered at the 23rd FICM

Gustavo R. Gallardo

The Argentinian filmmaker and screenwriter Lucrecia Martel was honored with the UNAM Film Archive Medal within the 23rd Morelia International Film Festival (FICM).

Before the screening of Landmarks, Hugo Villa, director of the UNAM Film Archive, emphasized Martel’s ability to explore complex emotional landscapes and her priceless contribution to contemporary film narrative. The filmmaker stated that this is the second time the documentary has been screened in Latin America, and the first time at a Latin American festival.  

“If someday you decide to shoot a film on 16mm in black and white, you are welcome to our film laboratory,” Villa said. 

Martel, visibly moved, expressed her gratitude for the medal ceremony. She joked, “Should I bite it like in the Olympics?”

Later, accompanied by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Batel, vice president of FICM, and Daniela Michel, founder and director of FICM, Alejandro Ramírez, president of the festival, recognized Martel’s singular voice in the art of cinema by giving the filmmaker an armchair with her name stitched on it, which will be in Screening Room 4 at Cinépolis Centro. 

“This is much more than anyone could imagine. This medal is something incredible; I don't know what fragments of performances I'll be taking home with me,” she said amid applause. 

In Argentina, the murder of Javier Chocobar on October 12th, 2009, revealed the historical violence behind the eviction of indigenous communities. The documentary explores five centuries of colonial “reason” that culminate in a single shot: from a gun and a camera.

Martel dedicated the documentary to the memory of Javier Chocobar and to indigenous peoples. “The world isn’t so small we need to massacre people to steal their land.”