Our Land (12A)

Our Land dares to tread where few have trespassed before. Orban Wallace’s (Another News Story, Robin) invigorating documentary examines the intense debate around the right to roam in the UK and beyond.

The UK countryside is a wild and beautiful place, but the vast majority is off limits to the general public, with 92% of land and 97% of all rivers in England not legally accessible. At the same time, it is a landscape shaped by centuries of inheritance and tradition, with land held and cared for by families across multiple generations. 

Through organised mass trespass events, the Right to Roam movement aims to increase public access to nature, bringing it into conflict with England’s landowners. Here, Wallace gives voice to both the activists fighting to broaden access and the custodians fighting to restrict it in the name of stewardship.

Energising and clarifying, Our Land explores and challenges age-old beliefs around property that have shaped our relationship with the land for over a thousand years, revealing in detail how questions of ownership are intricately tied to histories of colonialism, class and power.