In *This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection* (2019), the setting is not merely a backdrop but a **dynamic antagonist and primary motivator** that dictates the film's entire trajectory. Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese and set in the rugged highlands of Lesotho, the setting influences the action through its physical transformation, its ancestral history, and its eventual destruction.
### 1. The Transformation from "Rest" to "Resistance"
The action is initiated by a change in the setting’s future. The protagonist, 80-year-old Mantoa, begins the film in a state of passive preparation for death following the loss of her son. Her only goal is to be buried in the village cemetery alongside her ancestors.
* **The Conflict:** When a government official arrives to announce the construction of a dam that will flood the village (renaming it a "reservoir"), the setting is transformed from a final resting place into a battleground.
* **The Action:** This news shifts Mantoa’s trajectory from **resignation to radical defiance**. She no longer waits for death; she actively fights to preserve the ground where she intends to meet it. Her resistance is entirely defined by the geography of the cemetery; if the land were not being flooded, her character would likely have remained in a state of quiet mourning.
### 2. Physicality of the Land Dictating Character Movement
The rugged, unforgiving terrain of Lesotho dictates the pace and physical toll of the narrative:
* **Digging the Grave:** In a central sequence, when the village men refuse to help her due to fear or superstition, Mantoa takes a pickaxe to the rocky, stubborn soil herself. The **physical resistance of the earth** mirrors her own internal struggle. The camera lingers on the difficulty of penetrating the land, emphasizing that her connection to the setting requires immense physical labor and sacrifice.
* **The Journey to the City:** To appeal the dam project, Mantoa must travel to a distant administrative center. When the bus breaks down—a common occurrence in the remote setting—she doesn't wait. She begins to walk the long highway alone. The vastness and isolation of the landscape highlight her vulnerability as an elderly woman while simultaneously showcasing her indomitable spirit.
### 3. Layers of Identity: "Nasaretha" vs. "The Plains of Weeping"
The history of the setting creates a thematic tension that drives the villagers' actions.
* **Colonial vs. Indigenous:** The narrator explains that the village was originally called the **Plains of Weeping** (*Phula ea Meokho*), a name reflecting centuries of indigenous struggle and the burial of those who died during ancient plagues. It was later renamed **Nasaretha** by Christian missionaries.
* **The Climax:** This dual identity influences the villagers’ decision-making. While the "civilized" name Nasaretha represents the "progress" the dam claims to bring, Mantoa’s appeal to the "Plains of Weeping" invokes an ancestral power. This culminates in the film's final "resurrection" of spirit, where the villagers—previously cowed by the government—are galvanized by Mantoa’s refusal to let their ancestral "soil" (the literal physical setting) be erased.
### 4. The Final Stand: Setting as a Witness
The film’s conclusion is defined by Mantoa’s physical relationship with the land as the eviction cohort arrives.
* **The Walk:** In the final act, Mantoa strips naked and walks toward the government workers. By shedding her clothes, she removes all worldly layers, leaving only her body—which the director explicitly treats as a landscape (using a 4:3 aspect ratio to emphasize the furrows of her skin like the ridges of the mountains).
* **Environmental Desolation:** The setting’s eventual destruction—symbolized by the burning of Mantoa’s house and the accumulation of plastic trash in the cemetery—forces the action toward its tragic end. The film suggests that when the setting (the land) is murdered by "progress," the people who inhabit it become the "living dead," a theme reinforced by the narrator’s presence in a dark, soul-less tavern—the displaced "future" of the village.