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RAI FILM Festival takes place on 27-30 March 2025. Learn more.

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2019

SOLITARY LAND

Directed by Tiziana Panizza

2017 – 107'

Synopsis

A researcher found 32 documentaries filmed on Easter Island almost a century ago. They contain images of the island’s rock sculptures, the Moai, but they barely show the island’s inhabitants, whom at the time were being subjected to a cruel colonization, being treated like slaves and held captive for over 60 years. Desperate, many of them escaped on makeshift boats, heading out for the open sea. Solitary Land tells the story of how one of the world’s most beautiful tourist destinies was once a prison, together with a register of the island’s current prison: a small community guarded by local and Chilean prison guards, from which no inmate has ever escaped. Where would a fugitive go on the planet’s most remote island? Tierra Sola is a documentary about the paradox of freedom.

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RAI FILM Festival 2025

The next RAI FILM Festival will take place in person from 27-30 March 2025 at the Watershed Cinema and the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol (UK) and online throughout the month of April 2025.