Astral City: A Spiritual Journey

Dr. André Luiz is a successful but self-absorbed physician who dies and wakes in a barren, shadowy region filled with cries and suffering. He still feels hunger, thirst and cold, yet no longer belongs to the world of the living. Rescued from this grim state, he is brought to Nosso Lar, a spiritual city that exists in the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere and is described as a home rather than a paradise. There he begins a long process of learning and transformation, still marked by pain and by the wish to return to Earth and see his family. The story comes from the bestselling book attributed to the Brazilian medium Chico Xavier.

Wagner de Assis wrote and directed this Brazilian drama, which runs 103 minutes and was made for about 12 million dollars. It was the first feature he directed, followed later by Kardec, Nobody Belongs to Nobody, Astral City 2: The Messengers and other titles. Renato Prieto plays André Luiz, with Fernando Alves Pinto, Rosanne Mulholland, Inez Viana, Rodrigo de Odé and Werner Schünemann among the credited cast of 26.

Audience response was mixed: on IMDb it holds 6.5/10 from around 4,100 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.2/10 from 236 votes, a small sample that is noticeably warmer than the larger one.