Michael, an open-pit miner, refuses to accept the fact that coal is being phased out. He doesn’t want things to change. Working in an open-pit mine is more than just a job to him. He tries to convince his co-workers to join in his protest of the changes afoot, but by not being able to let go, he gets less and less support — even from his family.
Acting
Markus Hering's suffocating stillness as denial itself.
Cinematography
Open-pit landscapes that swallow human ambition whole.
Director
Henning Beckhoff
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Filmed in Germany's actual Rhenish lignite mining region, where thousands face real displacement as coal phases out by 2030.
Director Beckhoff cast actual miners in supporting roles; their improvised arguments with Hering were kept in the final cut, blurring fiction and documentary grief.
DE
