Lisandro Alonso’s La Libertad and Los Muertos: The Dual Forest

Lisandro Alonso’s La Libertad (2001) takes place in central Argentina’s pampa, an immense, wide open territory, a ‘wooded steppe’. However, the director does not take his audience along for a never-ending stroll; instead, with several long takes, he establishes the exact boundaries of his work. A young woodcutter, Misael, after building a temporary shelter in the pampa, surveys a wooded area, identifies the trees that can be cut down and marks where they will be axed based on their size. With graceful dexterity, he uses his axe to remove the bark. He then makes a bundle of this modest treasure, which he intends to sell later, and places it at the edge of the forest lot. Lisandro Alonso shows all this hard work while remaining at a respectful distance. The camera follows every wonderfully skilful gesture. This is reality, powerful yet untouched by any sermon about deforestation, unsullied by allegorical interpretations, unspoiled by any meditation on the generosity of nature. Trees are felled and pruned; the filmmaker is only a mindful observer, and it is the young man’s activity that gives the pictures their energy. These woods are only a work site, the means to produce a modest income. The long duration of the shots underscores the woodcutter’s progress, but also shows the austerity of his life: all he does is cut, transport and sell wood. Lisandro Alonso shows that basic survival activities (hunting armadillos for food, starting a fire) are really acts of autonomous resistance. The forest, in La Libertad, is not just a lush environment or a wild ecosystem; it is a set of habits, a place of endlessly repeated, exhausting work.

The Wooded Pampa, a Modest Production Site

With his axe, Misael carefully removes all the branches that are in the way and starts digging around the base. The camera is placed directly in front of him and looks steadily at his precise motions, emphasising the calm, ordinary courage of this young man. The picture then moves closer to the trunk and the audience can see the axe rhythmically biting into the wood, until the whole tree falls to the ground. The woodcutter then starts cutting into the tree with a chainsaw, slowly, methodically transforming this living being into wood pieces.