Landless review – Brazilian land-access doc doesn't dig deep enough
Written by Phil Hoad
A visually sharp film about the struggle of worker-activists against ruthless agribusiness fails to engage on the issues
‘If you can’t cope with the ants, don’t mess with the anthill.” So goes a slogan chanted by the activists occupying land belonging to a sugarcane processing plant in the north-eastern Brazilian town of Santa Helena – one branch of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) that has been battling for land access for smallholder farmers in the country since 1984. The cause is unimpeachable, and even more pressing with Jair Bolsonaro’s current backing for ruthless agribusiness whose giant footprint excludes almost everyone else.
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