Release Date: 24 Sept 2012Few filmmakers can boast a body of work as outstanding, as beautiful or as challenging as that of Pedro Costa. This, his second feature, is an intriguing and voluptuous rethink of Jacques Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie.
Leão falls into a coma after an accident working on a construction site in Portugal. Arrangements are made for a young nurse, Mariana, to accompany him back to his home on the brooding Cape Verde islands. Strangely, no one recognises him there and as she waits for someone to take responsibility for Leão or for him to regain consciousness, Mariana gradually becomes bewitched by the mysterious community and landscape of this unnerving volcanic isle.
A remarkable, award-winning work of luminous beauty and power, Casa de Lava confirms the reputation of one of contemporary cinema's foremost filmmakers.
• Presented in a new HD restoration, supervised by the director
especially for this DVD release.
• Pedro Costa on Casa de Lava – a new and exclusive
video piece filmed at the Tate Modern, London.
• The other Casa de Lava – pages from Pedro Costa's
fascinating scrapbook of texts and images gathered whilst working on the film, set to original music.
• Interview with cinematographer Emmanuel Machuel.
• New booklet essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.
• New and improved English subtitle translation.
• Optimal quality dual-layer disc.
Inês de Medeiros - Mariana
Isaach De Bankolé - Leão
Edith Scob - Edith
Pedro Hestnes - Edith's son
Raul Andrade - Bassoé
Sandra do Canto Brandão - Tina
Cristiano Andrade Alves - Tano
Directed by Pedro Costa
Screenplay and dialogue- Pedro Costa
Cinematography -Emmanuel Machuel
Editing - Dominique Auvray
Sound – Henri Maikoff
Music – Raul Andrade
Production Design - Maria-José Branco
Costume – Rosa Lopes Alves
Pedro Costa's startling debut feature Blood (O Sangue)
is also available from Second Run DVD.
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"Beautifully crafted and intensely played out against a brooding volcanic landscape" Variety
"A politically savvy homage to Jacques Tourneur... creates moody, luminous tableaux to conjure an incantatory, Faulknerian earthiness" The New Yorker
"Weaves magic from minute observations of everyday life" Dazed & Confused
"A pivotal film in Costa's filmography" Senses of Cinema
“Pedro Costa, the Samuel Beckett of cinema”
The Guardian