‘The Land’ is a less well-known, somewhat atypical and possibly the most controversial film by the archetypal father of the documentary film, Robert Flaherty. With his wife he travelled throughout the South and the Midwest of the US in order to sketch a detrimental picture of extensive and uprooted areas. Dusty roads, deserted farmsteads, farmers hopelessly left behind, a lack of prospects and poverty were not the first thing the ‘official’ clients were asking for. ‘The Land’ is a cry of protest which, immediately following its prestigious première in the Museum of Modern Art, disappeared into the darkest corners of the cellars. It is not this controversy which makes ‘The Land’ so important but rather Flaherty’s belief in the critical power of film.