Film Forum

“Proves that cinema still has the capacity to astonish” – Lee Marshall, Screen Daily. Director Michelangelo Frammartino, who chronicled the life cycle of a Calabrian village in LE QUATTRO VOLTE (a 2011 Film Forum premiere), recreates the 1961 discovery of Italy’s Bifurto Abyss – Europe’s deepest cave. A team of intrepid speleologists rappel into the earth, using crude helmet lanterns and flaming torches to light their path. Casting real speleologists, Frammartino meticulously details the exploration of this seemingly fathomless cave of startling wonder and beauty, himself spending hours inside, using cameras with extended fiber optic cables.

2021    93 MINS    ITALY / FRANCE / GERMANY    IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES   

GRASSHOPPER FILM

Reviews

“Where nature, the universe, and humans converge…A mystical cinematic experience.”
– Bong Joon-ho (director, PARASITE)

“Neither a documentary nor a tale of adventure, but rather a quiet, intense, almost overwhelmingly beautiful meditation on life, death, human curiosity and the unfathomable power of nature.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“A meditation on mortality charted through a mesmerizingly re-created spelunking expedition.”
– Nicolas Rapold, Artforum

“A pure pleasure. I’m not certain I can fully explain it. I’m not convinced it matters.”
– Xan Brooks, The Guardian (UK)

“A film composed entirely of beautiful images. Renata Berta’s landscape camerawork is extraordinarily well-attuned to the glories of this little-touristed region.The film unfolds at a rhythm that feels more like it should be measured in geological time. (A) slow, gorgeous… exceptionally crafted, staggeringly beautiful docufiction. Tenderly, wordlessly…recreates a 1961 speleological expedition.”
– Jessica Kiang, Variety