Down to Earth (1995)

Original title

Casa de Lava

Directed by

Pedro Costa

Genre

drama film

Country

Portugal

Runtime

1h 50m

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 25 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A nurse travels to the Cape Verde Islands to care for a comatose construction worker. She becomes immersed in the stark landscape and isolated community.

slow-burnmeditativebleakvisually starkminimalistmoodysparseatmospheric

What happens

Down to Earth (Portuguese: Casa de Lava, lit. 'Lava House') is a 1995 Portuguese drama film directed by Pedro Costa. The film is set in Cape Verde Islands, a former Portuguese colony. This drama film is characterized by its reduced narrative, and photographies of the volcano in the Cape Verde islands. The title literally means "a house of lava". The film has been described by some reviewers as Costa's remake of Jacques Tourneur's 1943 film, I Walked with a Zombie, and Costa himself has suggested that his original intention for Down to Earth was for it to be a remake of Tourneur's film. Costa's work has often been compared by some to modern updates of classical Hollywood films, with Jonathan Rosenbaum pointing out that Colossal Youth may be viewed as Costa's remake of John Ford's 1960 film Sergeant Rutledge. Casa de Lava was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at 1994 Cannes Film Festival. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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