Underplayed Gems

Down to Earth (1995)

Down to Earth poster
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
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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)

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