Underland review – poetic exploration of life deep beneath the Earth’s surface

By Peter Bradshaw · The Guardian Culture

Sinkholes, storm drains, manmade labs miles underground … this documentary, based on Robert Macfarlane’s book, burrows deep into some of humanity’s great unknowns There are some arresting questions and potent images in Rob Petit’s ruminative essay-documentary Underland, based on Robert Macfarlane’s bestselling book of the same name about the spaces under the Earth’s surface and what they tell us – or withhold from us – about human existence and the Anthropocene. Mexican archaeologist Fátima Tec Pool descends into a cenote , a freshwater sinkhole, on the Yucatan peninsula, the entry point to a mysterious subterranean zone; these were revered by the Maya people as Xibalba , the underworld, and once upon a time explored by them using just firelight. Meanwhile, theoretical physicist Mariangela Lisanti studies dark matter in a special ultra-clean facility constructed miles below the Earth’s surface in Canada, and urban explorer Bradley Garrett roams the scary and dark storm-drain tunnels below Las Vegas and discovers evidence that people live there; poor people driven underground. Continue reading...