A documentary about the killing of indigenous activist Javier Chucobar has won top prize at the London Film Festival, with a jury describing it as a “measure of justice” long denied by the courts.
The festival announced on Sunday that the first documentary film by Argentine director Lucrecia Martell, “Landmarks,” won the best film award in the festival’s official competition.
The film examines issues of land ownership in Argentina and questions the role of this history in the 2009 murder of Chucobar, a Chuchagasta leader in Argentina’s Tucuman province who fought for indigenous land rights.
It focuses on the trial of three men held nine years after the murder. A candid video shows their fatal encounter with Chocobar after they issued evacuation orders for him and hundreds of other Chushagasta residents on their ancestral plot of land.
The jury, which included film producer Elisabeth Carlsen, praised Martel’s “deep empathy and extraordinary journalistic and cinematic accuracy.”
He added, “By highlighting the voices of the present and a neglected history, Martell creates a portrait of and for the Indigenous community, giving them a measure of justice that the courts have long denied them. Against a remarkably strong competition, our jury is proud to honor this unique achievement.”
Martel has been referred to as “the most celebrated auteur of Spanish-language art cinema outside Latin America.” She has made a series of feature films, including La Ciénaga, The Holy Girl, The Headless Woman, and Zama.
In 2018, the director spoke to The Guardian about her astonishment and shock at the arrogance and entitlement of Argentina’s middle class – which she said was a direct result of the arrival of Europeans in the country. “Even very educated people can’t make the connection,” she said. “It’s almost like looking at a wooden boat and not realizing it’s made of trees. We see the wooden boat, but not the trees.”
Other winners at this year’s London Film Festival include Fensho Nshogo’s One Woman One Bra, a humorous account of a woman’s struggle to preserve her ancestral land, which won the Sutherland Prize for First Feature Film. Sutherland’s jury said the film was “at once funny, life-affirming and deeply moving; its emotional journey has stayed with us and will continue to do so.”
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Director David Bingong’s “Travelers”, an account of the dangerous journey undertaken by a group of migrants from Cameroon to Europe, won the Grierson Award for best documentary.
The short film award went to Saeed Zagha’s film “Wolves,” which revolves around a Palestinian doctor whose future is thrown into chaos after a clash with Israeli soldiers on her way home.