Notre demeure

Let's start by stating the obvious: Astral City offers a rather poor cinematic experience. The overall quality of this product is that of a soap opera. Writing, acting, and direction are naive in a way that will be obvious to anyone, except those who are heavily invested in spirituality and are easily impressed by any relevant work.

The movie has not much artistic merit.

However, I have to acknowledge that while better-made movies about the afterlife (e.g. What Dreams May Come) succeed in entertaining me, they fail to elicit the same level of soul-searching and spiritual curiosity of this B-movie. I am sceptic by character and very hard to impress or persuade, and of course I don't believe that the book on which this movie is based was actually psychographed, yet I find the ideas of cyclic reincarnation, spiritual healing and spiritual elevation insightful and worthy of research, especially for Western audiences who may not have had much exposure to them.

Something I didn't like about the theology in this movie (and presumably the book if I were to read it), which is maybe stemming from the culture in which it was produced, is that the astral city is organised as a powerful bureaucracy which micro-manages every aspect of your (after)life, to the extent that in order to make meaningful progress in your spiritual path, you have to go to a public building and queue (yes!) to talk to some patronising government official.

I am British and have no particular sympathy for the libertarian extremists in the US, but I dread the idea of my afterlife being ruled by a celestial bureaucracy where good deeds can be effectively spent as a currency to access government-supplied benefits. I hope that is not what afterlife looks like: possibly, it is just the utopia of a "fair" bureaucracy conceived by someone who is fed up with corrupt governments and institutions here on Earth.

The base for this movie is the spiritual reality. It tries to explain what does happen to us after the death of our body. Where do we go? How is it like? Do we eat? Do we have to work? Do we feel pain?... You will find very rational answers for those and much more questions that may come along with the movie. It is based on a real life experience of a doctor, Andre Luiz, and is told by himself. He lived his life quite as we all do and after a gastrointestinal problem he does not resist and die. After that, he goes through very tough moments until he finally recognizes the importance of God and asks for help. That is when he is taken to "Nosso Lar" - a spiritual colony - and starts seen things from a different perspective beginning to understand life and its mechanics. Based on the best seller "Nosso Lar" psycho graphed (channeled) by Chico Xavier it is a great opportunity for us to know what does expect us "in the other side".

This movie was fascinating! The effects are fantastic and the scenario very captivating.

Sends you to a place where you can't help but put yourself in Andre's shoes and think of what you want to do with your life. As for the message sent by the movie, it is one that warms the heart and awakens questions about life, love, selflessness and how you affect your life and the life of those around you by simply existing. As a scientist I have gone through life battling with the fear of death. After watching Nosso Lar something inside me changed. I won't say I am a believer now, but I feel at least hope ...

I recommend it for anyone who one day has wondered what happens when you part.

Nosso Lar (seen yesterday) is an adaptation of a book written by André Luiz himself through spiritual medium Chico Xavier, hence it's a shortened version of what the book really represents. Also, we all know that book adaptations almost always fail to deliver to the fans the expected experience and hardly ever entertain the ones who haven't previously read the book that's being adapted. Nosso Lar is also kind of boring and confusing. In the beginning of the film the narrative will constantly change between different parts of the main character's life and his physical and spiritual state after his demise. There are several long speeches that break the pace of the film, but funny takes relieve the boredom making the film more watchable.

The film has directing, role cohesion and visual effects problems, but it does well in delivering to the spectator some more advanced notions of spirituality, an issue that's recently been brought up much in Brazil through films and soap operas. It may be entertaining and inspiring to those who have interest on spirituality but if you don't believe in those thoughts you probably shouldn't watch it, since it may be a not so good introduction to this wonderful subject.

This film was the best one in 2010 because put in the main screen the most famous book of Chico Xavier

• brings a new spiritual way to see life (not so new for 'espíritas'= a philosophical movement born in France, but Brazil have the main followers today, see 'Allan Kardek' for more information) - it doesn't have violence (common in 'good' films today) - actors were very good and the history was perfect showing the spiritual growth of a person (André Luiz) - the special effects were superb, carefully done - music by Philip Glass, no comments... very beautiful This film is controversial for many people because brings subjects as reincarnation, life after death so on