Terra Firma

This portion of Joshua is one of a series of long passages in which the tribes of Israel receive their allotments in the promised land, their lines of demarcation being tediously described. The brief verses at the ends of these chapters caught my interest, noting almost in passing that “Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites…They did not dislodge the Canaanites living in Gezer.” I’m drawn to these moments in the book of Joshua–and the whole Bible really–when the clear path encounters the unexpected, the unideal, the nooks and crannies of reality.

As a response, this film is a study on territory and dancing with the enemy. The work revels in the contested but shared space between two dancers who grapple within a carefully plotted piece of ground. With a supporting cast amplifying the intimate struggle, Terra Firma embodies the effort of ousting an enemy, and figuring out how to live with him in the ambiguous aftermath.