Buried Land (2010)

Cast: Amir Susa, Goran Cakic, Semir Osmanagich, Emir Z. Kapetanovic, Geoffrey Alan Rhodes

Rating: NR

Running Time: 86 min.

Synopsis: Semir Osmanagic was born in Bosnia in 1960, but had been living in the United States for years when he returned to his homeland in 2005 to begin an unusual investigation. Osmanagic was told that there was something unusual about Visocica Hill in the town of Visoko, and as he studied the hill he came to the conclusion that it and two similar hills nearby were not natural formations; according to Osmanagic, they were man-made pyramids that predated those constructed in Egypt. In a nation devastated by war and genocide, the notion that Bosnia was once one of the world's first civilizations and they possessed a remarkable tourist attraction was a powerful one, and the story of the Bosnian Pyramids quickly spread around the world, even though scientists soon dismissed it as a hoax. Filmmakers Geoffrey Alan Rhodes and Steven Eastwood fuse this true-life story with a fictional narrative in their film Buried Land. Adam (Geoffrey Alan Rhodes) is a film director from America who has come to Bosnia to make a film about the supposed pyramids in Visoko; he's accompanied by Emir (Emir Z. Kapetanovic), a Bosnian refugee who is Adam's cameraman for the project. Most of the locals don't trust Adam, imagining he could be making a Borat-style mockumentary satire, while Emir is shown only bit more respect. Adam hires a local tour guide Avdija (Avdija Buhic) to serve as a translator and show him around Visoko, but though some of the locals are excited about the pyramids, others are convinced the story will only bring more problems to a nation already struggling with a bitter legacy. Buried Land was an official selection at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.