From the Land to Your Table

The urban produce markets of seven countries—Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Spain—are profiled in this impressionistic documentary by a group of filmmakers from the respective nations. Following a 20-minute prologue that portrays the hardscrabble life of a rural couple as they work the fields, harvest the crops, and transport the goods for sale in a humble oxcart, From the Land to Your Table takes viewers on a journey through the vast outdoor plazas in which people set up stalls and hawk vegetables, fruits, and flowers to crowds of customers. Although some of the sequences feature conversations—between sellers and buyers, or even family members squabbling over inventory and profits—most are composed of silent vignettes that focus on the faces of people as they set up shop, ply their wares, and then close up for the night. The latter portions offer more extended consideration of a few chatty individuals, particularly a butcher who muses about his life and invites a group of schoolchildren into his establishment to see how sausage is made. But the treatment here is more evocative than explanatory, drawing a general picture of the market hubbub and the hard work that marks the lives of those manning the stalls, rather than examining the economics involved in the process. The result is atmospheric and occasionally rather moving. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)