This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2019) review

During Christmas time in Lesotho, widowed Mantoa (Mary Twala Mhlongo) waits for her son to return from the mines of South Africa, but she finds out he's died and has to bury him; later, when the "officials" tell the people of her village they need to move because a dam needs to be constructed, she becomes especially defiant, trying to encourage the others to resist.  While the cinematography is sharp and it reminds me of Pedro Costa's work, it can only go so far with its lovely images and mytho-poetic ramblings - in an interview with Senses of Cinema, Mosese said it's about "identity, displacement, holding on to something that is not there," which sounds like he didn't have a developed thesis in his head and chose to record a rough draft.  For its last act it gets too "film school-ish" with all the blurry effects and octogenarian Mantoa stripping naked ... which makes me think he was unfortunately 'inspired' by Ari Aster's features.