From the Depths

A subdued, fascinating descent into the last coal mine in Italy and the lives of the miners, including a woman. Slowly the camera drops to 500 meters (1,640 feet) below the surface, while the woman reminiscences in voice-over about the first time she went down. “This is our world. This is your home,” her father said at the time. There are a few of these more or less staged moments in this portrait of a dangerous, unhealthy and poorly-paid vocation. Most of the time, however, the film crew behaves like a fly on the wall. The viewer gets its information from the mutual discussions or press conferences during a strike. For a long time there have been talks of closure, and some employees are in favor of that themselves. “Coal is an old story,” muses the female mine worker, the only woman in a male-dominated world. One of the sporadic scenes shot aboveground emphasizes this fact, as we see that the mine overlooks a large wind farm. captures the hard work itself as well as the camaraderie among the miners. The fear that their toil will ever be forgotten is allayed by this beautiful film.