Above and Below

Name: Above and Below
Genre: Documentary

Switzerland, Germany · 2015
2h 0m
Director Nicolas Steiner
Starring
Genre Documentary

Above and Below is a rough and rhythmic roller coaster ride seating five survivors in their daily hustle through an apocalyptic world. A journey of challenges and beauty in uncomfortable places: Rick & Cindy, Godfather Lalo in the flood channels deep down under the shiny strip of Sin City. Dave in the dry and lonesome Californian desert and April in simulation for a Mars mission in the Utah desert. Through the hustle, the pain and the laughs, we are whisked away to an unfamiliar world, yet quickly discover the souls we encounter are perhaps not that different from our own. Above and Below is a documentary about marginal people in America --- those down on their luck, but, somehow, keeping on. We follow Rick and Cindy in the flood channels of Las Vegas, Dave, an unmarried wanderer, in the California badlands, and April who does practice runs for the Mars Society in Utah. All of these people live uncomfortable lives, yet they are able to find some semblance of beauty in it all.

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What are critics saying?

Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl

The film is a wonder of desert skies, slick tunnels, bumptious fence- and wall-climbing, and occasional staged reveries.

Slant Magazine by Clayton Dillard

The documentary lingers on silences and reveals its subjects only through moments of quotidian behavior.

The Film Stage by Jacob Oller

Many of the cuts and interplay between subjects seem like filler rather than commentary; the lightshows of LEDs and flashlights dancing off the dank walls of sewers reveal no more than a flashy visual sensibility.

Screen International by Mark Adams

An intriguing and absorbing delve into almost alien parts of the United States.

The New York Times by Nicolas Rapold

Mr. Steiner’s tightly interconnected documentary, with transporting shots, visits people on the margins in the United States.

100

Variety by Peter Debruge

At nearly two hours, the film might strike some as overlong, and yet the edit finds so many masterful connections en route to its exhilarating climax that it’s easy to fall under the pic’s hypnotic spell.