Pedro Costa

CASA DE LAVA

DOWN TO EARTH
Pedro Costa
P, FRA, DEU 1994
110 min
V'05

Leão, a Cape Verdian man working on a construction site in Portugal, has an accident and ends up in a coma. While still comatose, arrangements are made from his hometown to have him sent back. A nurse, Mariana, ready for a change of scene, volunteers to accompany him. Upon her arrival, nothing is as she expects. No one seems to be waiting for Leão. As Mariana is waiting for someone to turn up, for Leão to wake up from his coma , she gets increasingly involved with the mysterious community; and the intrigue mounts. Pedro Costa creates some arresting portraiture, especially the selective low-angled close-ups, while cinematographer Emmanuel Machuel arrives at some exquisite night shots.
The genesis of this film was my aversion to Portuguese politics and the social situation from 1991 to 1993. (...) What I vaguely remember about the original script was that it was novelistic, something exotic like Jacques Tourneurs I Walked with a Zombie or Joseph Conrads «Lord Jim», emulating Fritz Langs cinema. The only fiction I invented in this film was Inês. The rest came from what I did with the people living on Cape Verde, and that was all there. (Pedro Costa)

Credits
  • Inês Medeiros - Mariana
  • Isaach de Bankolé - Leão
  • Edith Scob - Edite
  • Pedro Hestnes - Edites Sohn
  • Sandra do Canto Brandão - Tina
  • Cristiano Andrade Alves - Tano
  • Raul Andrade - alter Mann
  • João Media - Dr. Media
  • Pedro Costa
  • Emmanuel Machuel
  • Henri Maikoff
  • Dominique Auvray
  • Paul Hindemith
  • Raul Andrade
  • Travadinha
  • Finançon
  • Prince Niko M barka
  • Maria José Branco
  • Rosa Lopes Alves
Madragoa Filmes

Gemini Films 34 bvd. de Sébastopol 75004 Paris, Frankreich T 1 44 54 17 17, melanie.godey@gemini-films.com

35 mm
col
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