To celebrate the release of this cinematic documentary, we are giving away two tickets for a special screening at the BFI IMAX on Wednesday 1 April. More information on our Instagram page.
The ground beneath our feet is punctuated by passages into subterranean worlds, products of Earth’s natural systems and human activity alike. Although rarely visible to the casual observer, they are ever-present, facilitating both the ebb and flow of natural processes and the busy progress of society. These spaces, and our journeys into them, are the subject of Underland, a new cinematic documentary based on the bestselling book by Robert Macfarlane, directed by Robert Petit and produced by Darren Aronofsky and arriving in cinemas from 27 March.
Our world’s subterranean history
Following a web of central narratives, we delve into a Yucatán cenote, a subterranean research facility in Canada, as well as human-made tunnels in Las Vegas. Underland brings these spaces to life vividly, guiding us through vast caverns, suffocating passageways, and deep boreholes alike. These environments showcase the dynamic processes that shape the subsurface, the dramatic consequences of erosion, dissolution, mineralisation, folding and fracturing, among others.
The film explores the relationship between the underground and the generations of humans that have entered these spaces, as well as the deep-time geological processes by which they formed. From Palaeolithic cave art to scientific laboratories, the underground has served as shelter, burial ground, resource, and experimental frontier.
Markings and handprints on cave walls deep underground are a window to historic beliefs surrounding memory and mortality, as archaeologist Fátima Tec Pool searches for evidence of Mayan presence on a multiple-day expedition into a cenote.
In contrast, theoretical physicist Mariangela Lisanti uses a high-precision analytical instrument, stationed in a subterranean cavern to shield surface interference, to answer modern science’s questions about dark matter and our place in the universe.
Tunnels, storm drains, catacombs and abandoned mines are humanity’s subterranean footprint, one which urban explorer Bradley Garrett investigates for evidence of past human activity, as well as of present, neglected communities that rely on these spaces. He also reveals that the subsurface also represents a buried legacy of waste, both litter and nuclear, a challenge that forces us to think on geological timescales.
The evolving world below
Expansive visual effects, in combination with Hannah Peel’s score and narration from Sandra Hüller, contribute to a cinematic experience thoroughly anchored in the mysticism and wonder that humanity has gleaned from hidden, subsurface worlds. The film’s visual language shows us that the underground is an evolving system, continually reshaped by physical, chemical, and biological processes.
Underland also considers the accelerating transformations occurring beneath the surface. Melting permafrost, destabilised ice sheets, and shifting groundwater systems are reshaping the subsurface with direct consequences for ecosystems and societies. Through the lens of geological time, it is also clear that the climate crisis is part of a continuum of geological processes, although one driven by human activity.
Underland also showcases some of the analytical techniques used to study subterranean spaces, effectively translating LiDAR modelling of cave systems and remote study of radioactive deposits into impressive cinematic effects.
Geoscientists have long understood that the underground is a vast archive with every layer of rock, sediment or ice recording a story of Earth’s past. Underland captures the importance of the subsurface at a time when resource management, climate change mitigation and environmental resilience depend on a comprehensive, integrated understanding of the subsurface. Ultimately, the film invites us to appreciate what geoscientists have long known: that the world below ground is as dynamic and fundamental as the landscapes we see above it.
Don’t miss your chance to see Underland on the big screen with a live Q&A! Enter our giveaway to get a pair of tickets for 1 April.
Find out more about the film at www.underlandfilm.com/
Celebrate the release - win a pair of tickets!
Ahead of the official release in UK cinemas on 27 March, we were delighted to be invited to an early viewing of the documentary at Soho House in London. And now, to celebrate its release and reflect on what lies below us, we are giving away two tickets for a special screening at the BFI IMAX on Wednesday 1 April. The screening includes a Q&A with author Robert Macfarlane and director Rob Petit, in partnership with Underland’s distributor Dogwoof.
You can participate by following the instructions on our Instagram page.