Terra que marca

In TERRA QUE MARCA, the MiniDV camera does away with the convention of shooting things at human eyelevel. It mainly looks to the ground instead, catching sight of furrows in the soil, gullies caused by erosion, potato plants, weeds, a grazing horse, the imprint of tractor wheels in the mud. Domingues shot his film in and around his grandparent’s village. People do appear in TERRA QUE MARCA, but as just one factor among others. Callused hands sow, weed, build, and rake; stooped backs bring in the harvest. Tools and agricultural machinery feature just as prominently: a petrol-powered chainsaw, a plough, a mixing machine, a drum of liquid manure. This is hardly a rural idyll, but such precise observation of matter exerts a hypnotic pull.