The trailer for the Nas exec. produced, Erykah Badu co-starring film The Land was just released today. When Flavorwire’s own Jason Bailey caught the film at Sundance, he called it “a forceful, scrappy, energetic new film from an exciting new talent” — referring to its feature debut writer/director, Steven Caple, Jr. And the trailer exhibits the assuredness of the debut director, and is all the more enticing for providing more in the way of atmosphere, location and gestural storytelling (we see the friendship between the four main characters mostly through their wanderings around Cleveland streets and their skateboarding skills) rather than laying on too much story or dialogue.
The trailer shows Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Cisco, a kid who — as the first moments of the 1.5-minute glimpse reveal — is doing actively badly in school, finding escapism through skateboarding. But the film soon sees Cisco and his three close friends getting caught in a dangerous situation with a Cleveland queen-pin (a middle class white woman whose front happens to be a stand at a farmer’s market, played by Linda Emond) after they steal and sell Molly from the trunk of a car in order to make the money to participate in a skating competition. (They meet Badu’s addict/prostitute character along the way; she clearly plays a supporting role and only appears in the trailer for a couple of seconds, dazedly walking down the street).
The trailer also teases a fantastic soundtrack — produced by Nas, to be released July 29, the same day as the film — with new contributions from Kanye, Badu, Pusha T, Badu, Nas, Jeremih, French Montana and Nosaj Thing. The Wire’s Michael K. Williams , Machine Gun Kelly, and Sons of Anarchy‘s Kim Coates also star.
Watch the trailer:
[Via Complex]