Tribeca Festival & DC/DOX: UNDERLAND, a Mesmerizing Voyage Into Deep Earth, Prod. Darren Aronofsky & Sandbox Films (World Premiere)

UNDERLAND

Produced by Darren Aronofsky (Protozoa) & Sandbox Films

Feature Debut from Robert Petit

A Cinematic Voyage Into Deep Time Beneath the Surface of the Earth, Based on Robert Macfarlane's Bestselling Book

& Narrated by Sandra Hüller

World Premiere at Tribeca Festival

Remaining NYC Screenings [info]

Saturday, June 14 @ 5:45 PM – AMC 19th St. East 6

Sunday, June 15 @ 5:45 PM – AMC 19th St. East 6

Washington, DC Premiere at DC/DOX

Friday, June 13, 2:30PM – Regal Gallery Place [info]

Documentary Feature | 79 mins | UK, USA | in English & Spanish | 2025

"UNDERLAND feels like a rare kind of documentary: immersive, philosophical, visually breathtaking, and existential. It’s an invitation not just to explore but to remember that the ground we walk on is alive, storied, and sacred. UNDERLAND isn’t just a journey through physical space – it’s a metaphysical excavation. It digs into the human psyche, uncovering our compulsion to burrow into the dark not for escape but for truth. Petit has created a cinematic incantation, a reverent ode to the silence, danger, beauty, and history that exist just beneath our feet."

– Next Best Picture, Sara Clements (9/10)

"UNDERLAND isn’t merely notable for its ability to capture abject darkness... but for its stellar soundscape... replicating the sensitivity one’s ears achieve when the light suddenly vanishes."

– Filmmaker Magazine, Natalia Keogan

"A stunning visual exploration... feels grandiose in all the right ways.”

– Sunshine State Cineplex, Alan French

"An immersive deep dive into “the beckoning void.” Atmospheric, meditative... Visually striking."

– MovieJawn, Gary M. Kramer

Synopsis: We know so little of the world beneath our feet. To most it is a place only of fear and darkness, though to a brave few it is one of knowledge and wonder to be found nowhere else.

Based on the bestselling book by Robert Macfarlane, from production companies Sandbox Films, Protozoa Pictures, Planet Octopus Studios and Spring Films, UNDERLAND is a cinematic documentary that voyages into worlds rarely glimpsed by human eyes. Beginning in the shallow soils beneath an old ash tree, we travel alongside several ‘astronauts of the underworld’ into ancient sacred caves, flooded storm drains, melting glaciers, underwater burial chambers and a deep underground laboratory built to solve the mysteries of the Universe.

Narrated by Oscar-nominated Sandra Hüller, and with a uniquely poetic approach, UNDERLAND is a deep dive into the Earth that ultimately presents a groundbreaking vision for rethinking our lives on this fragile surface.

Based on the Book

Underland by Robert Macfarlane

World Premiere: Tribeca Festival 2025 (Documentary Competition)

Directed by Robert Petit

Produced by Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel, Lauren Greenwood, Jessica Harrop

Executive Producers André Singer, Figs Jackman, Robert Macfarlane, Craig Miller,

Elizabeth Radshaw, Richard Wolfe, Keith Potter

Narrated by Sandra Hüller

Composer Hannah Peel

Director of Photography Ruben Woodin Dechamps

Written by Robert Macfarlane, Robert Petit

Editors David G. Hill, Anna Price, Andy R. Worboys, Julian Quantrill

Supervising Sound Editor Joakim Sundström

Head of Production Pat Footer

Produced by Sandbox Films, Spring Films, Planet Octopus Studios, Protozoa Pictures 

In Association with Hot Docs Partners

About ROBERT PETIT (Director)

Robert Petit is a London-based writer and director working to collide the disciplines of geography and filmmaking to tell stories that challenge narratives of identity, landscape, and belonging. A graduate in Directing from the National Film and Television School he is also co-director of the creative studio Milkwood as well as being a long-time collaborator of the writer Robert Macfarlane (author of “Underland”). Together they made the critically acclaimed experimental film Upstream, a film shot entirely from the air that follows a Scottish river to its source high up in the Cairngorm mountains.

About DARREN ARONOFSKY (Producer)

Darren Aronofsky is an Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker born and raised in Brooklyn. Aronofsky heads Protozoa Pictures based in Chinatown NYC. His credits include π, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, THE FOUNTAIN, THE WRESTLER, BLACK SWAN, NOAH, mother!, THE WHALE, the Sphere Experience POSTCARD FROM EARTH, and the upcoming CAUGHT STEALING for Sony Pictures. As a producer his credits include JACKIE, THE GOOD NURSE, SOME KIND OF HEAVEN, Peabody and Emmy-winning THE TERRITORY, VIKTOR, National Geographic's LIMITLESS, starring Chris Hemsworth, WELCOME TO EARTH, ONE STRANGE ROCK, and the upcoming POLE TO POLE starring Will Smith.

About ARI HANDEL (Producer)

Ari Handel holds a doctorate in Neuroscience and has published four papers on the neural control of saccadic eye movements.  He left academia to become President of Protozoa where he has been a writer on the films THE FOUNTAIN and NOAH and the Sphere Experience POSTCARD FROM EARTH; a producer on mother!, JACKIE and THE WHALE; an executive producer on SOME KIND OF HEAVEN, WHITE BOY RICK, NOAH, BLACK SWAN, CATCH THE FAIR ONE, THE TERRITORY, VIKTOR and THE GOOD NURSE; and a co-producer on THE WRESTLER. He is an executive producer on the National Geographic science series ONE STRANGE ROCK, WELCOME TO EARTH, and LIMITLESS, FX’s KINDRED, and the VR series SPHERES: SONGS OF SPACETIME.

About LAUREN GREENWOOD (Producer)

Lauren Greenwood is a Producer holding MA, MSc and PhD degrees in Anthropology. Having lectured in Visual Anthropology and International Security, consulted for global think tanks, the UN and the EU, she is now a founding member of Planet Octopus Studios. Previously she spent seven years at the Oscar® nominated, Emmy®, Peabody, and BAFTA award-winning Spring Films as Producer working across Development and Production.

About JESSICA HARROP (Producer)

Jessica Harrop is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker who has dedicated her career to inspiring passion about science through film. She is the Executive Director of Sandbox Films, where she oversees all project decisions and company strategy and acts as an executive producer for Sandbox Films documentaries — including Oscar-nominated Fire of Love; Sundance Special Jury-Prize winning Nocturnes and All Light, Everywhere; Emmy-winning Fathom; and Fireball, a documentary directed by Werner Herzog. Jessica has produced content for a variety of outlets including Netflix, Showtime, Discovery, National Geographic, and PBS. She holds a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a Certificate in Theater from Princeton University, where she also co-taught an undergraduate film course on communicating climate change. Jessica serves on the board of Reel Works Teen Filmmaking.

About ROBERT MACFARLANE (Writer / Executive Producer)

Robert Macfarlane is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people and place. His bestselling books include Underland, Landmarks,The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind, which together have translated into more than thirty languages, won many prizes around the world, and been widely adapted for film, music, theatre, radio and dance. He has also written operas, plays and films, including River and Mountain, both narrated by Willem Dafoe, and collaborated with artists including Olafur Eliasson and Stanley Donwood. With the artist Jackie Morris he co-created the much-loved books of nature poetry and art, The Lost Words and The Lost Spells, and with the musician Johnny Flynn he co-wrote two albums, Lost in the Cedar Wood and The Moon Also Rises. In 2022 he was the inaugural winner of the Weston International Award for a body of work in non-fiction. He is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

About SANDBOX FILMS

Sandbox Films is an award-winning documentary studio that illuminates the art and beauty of scientific inquiry. Sandbox Films provides creative and financial support for artist-driven documentary projects that explore the world (and beyond) with curiosity, creativity and humanity. Founded in 2020, Sandbox Films’ slate of critically acclaimed films includes Academy Award-nominated FIRE OF LOVE; Sundance Jury Prize winners ALL LIGHT, EVERYWHERE and NOCTURNES; Werner Herzog’s FIREBALL, Penny Lane’s CONFESSIONS OF A GOOD SAMARITAN and Emmy-winning FATHOM; and most recently, ANDRÉ IS AN IDIOT, winner of the 2025 US Documentary Audience Award and Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award at Sundance. These and other Sandbox Films documentaries have found extensive audiences via Apple TV+, Hulu, National Geographic Documentary Films, NEON and Netflix, and in movie theaters internationally. Based in New York City, Sandbox collaborates with visionary filmmakers, scientists and production partners anywhere.

About PROTOZOA PICTURES

Protozoa, based in Chinatown NYC, is headed by Darren Aronofsky and his partner, Ari Handel. Their film credits include Aronofsky’s π, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, THE FOUNTAIN, THE WRESTLER, BLACK SWAN, NOAH, mother!, THE WHALE, POSTCARD FROM EARTH for MSG Sphere, and the upcoming CAUGHT STEALING for Sony Pictures; as well as Pablo Larrain’s JACKIE, Yann Demange’s WHITE BOY RICK, Lance Oppenheim’s documentary SOME KIND OF HEAVEN, Josef Kubota Wladyka's CATCH THE FAIR ONE, Alex Pritz’s documentary THE TERRITORY, Tobias Lindholm’s THE GOOD NURSE, and Jack Begert’s LITTLE DEATH, Olivier Sarbil’s documentary VIKTOR. Their recent TV credits include ONE STRANGE ROCK, WELCOME TO EARTH, and LIMITLESS for Nat Geo, KINDRED for FX, and BLACK GOLD for Paramount+. Upcoming will be Season 2 of LIMITLESS and SENTIENT for Nat Geo.

About PLANET OCTOPUS STUDIOS

PLANET OCTOPUS is a collaborative film collective born from the twice Oscar®-nominated, Emmy®, BAFTA, Peabody, Grierson and RTS award-winning production company Spring Films. With origins in London but now globally nomadic, the teams from PLANET OCTOPUS share an ethos of adaptability, innovation, and compassion to meet the ever-changing shape of global content markets. We love finding new and exciting ways to work, together telling the stories that matter in today’s world.

About SPRING FILMS

Spring Films is a twice Oscar-nominated, Emmy, BAFTA, Peabody, Grierson and RTS award winning factual production company based in London, specialising in high-end access driven documentary and non-scripted content for clients such as Netflix, Channel 4, A&E, BBC, HBO, ITV, Nat Geo, Sky and many more.