(spoiler free)
Earth and Blood, or if you’re going by its original title La terre et le sang, is a new Belgian/French action thriller and the latest film to land on streaming platform Netflix. The film follows Saïd (Sami Bouajila), the owner of a sawmill who’s contemplating selling his factory. After an employee does a favour for his half-brother, hiding stolen goods in the sawmill, Saïd, his property and his family become the target of a dangerous criminal gang.
The film wastes no time in throwing audiences right into the midst of the action, opening with a violent raid on a police station. This makes for a good start, however the film could have benefited from introducing some of the characters in this opening sequence with more detail and clarity. Earth and Blood does a better job of this with the protagonist, Saïd and his family, providing the necessary context for the narrative about to unfold. However, one frustration arises with the introduction of Saïd’s daughter, Sarah (Sofia Lesaffre). She uses a hearing aid and communicates using sign language, the problem is that no subtitles are provided for these moments meaning that on several occasions conversations are presented entirely one-sided. This isn’t a major issue considering that the film is predominately dialogue free, allowing for the greater focus on the action but nonetheless the film would no doubt have been enhanced if audiences could also understand what this character was saying throughout.
After the initial context is established there is very little in the way of narrative development, the film establishes its characters and puts its plot points in place to allow for the action onslaught that takes up most of the film’s short running time. There is range of action used here from fist fights to gunfire and both vehicular and on foot chase sequences. This range of action is well utilised as well as the location of the sawmill, which serves as the hub of activity for the majority of the picture. What holds this action back though is the lack of momentum in the story and characters. Apart from the quick set-up at the beginning of the film Earth and Blood does little to engage its audience aside from this action. The action itself is fine but with such scarce storytelling surrounding it the film fails to elevate it to anything greater. At crucial moments of the film, the score employs intense and over-dramatic music and whilst this is in an attempt to enhance the action it just feels unearned and therefore misplaced in this run of the (saw) mill thriller.
What Earth and Blood does do is by no means bad, there are numerous creative and exciting action sequences that use the main setting of the film creatively. However, its lack of more detailed storytelling makes this action thriller over simplified, which in turn leads to a rather unmemorable finished product. Its concise running time means that you won’t feel that you’ve wasted your time but simply that the film could have done more to engage you. Whilst some films in this genre succeed by being action heavy and narrative light it’s clear that Earth and Blood could have done with more of the latter.
Written by Hamish Calvert
★★
Thanks for reading this review, if you enjoyed it and would like to support us you can buy us a coffee HERE and make sure to follow us @HCMovieReviews over on Twitter.
HCMovieReviews 
Leave a comment