THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED

Pieter-Jan De Pue / Belgium, France / 2016 / 87 min / Colour

Italian premiere

In the war-torn Pamir mountains of Afghanistan, two worlds face and watch one another from afar. On the one hand there is the routine of American soldiers who are finally preparing to retreat from their mountain outposts, on the other are wild bands of children from the Kuchi tribe digging in the old Soviet mines to find and sell explosives to other children who, in turn, dig in search of lapis lazuli. Another gang of children controls the smuggling of these blue stones along the arid slopes that cross those amazing landscapes. The residues of war that were the "toys" of adults now become the children's. The director approaches these two worlds, halfway between documentary and fiction, recounting what will be left to the new generations in Afghanistan, destroyed by the war.

  • Pieter-Jan De Pue

    Pieter-Jan De Pue

    An internationally known Belgian director and photographer, De Pue studied visual arts at the cinema academy RITS in Brussels. With his debut film, The Land of the Enlightened, he won prestigious awards, including the special jury award for best cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival 2016.

Credits

Subject Pieter-Jan De PueSound Rob Flanagan, Bram Celis, Henk Rabau, Mohammed Ahmad Dust, Boban Slobodan, Mark HenryEditing Stijn Deconinck, David DusaProducer Bart Van LangendonckProduction company Savage Film

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