A coal miner becomes the fire-stealer in this blistering poetic fever dream.
Tony Harrison's poetic essay on the working class - in particular the British miners -, its struggles, its dreams and its icononography - at the very end of the 20th century, as interpreted through the myth of Prometheus.
Writing
Harrison's blistering poetry fused with cinema.
Production
Industrial landscapes as mythological hellscape.
Acting
Non-professional miners bring devastating authenticity.
Director
Tony Harrison
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the aftermath of the 1984-85 UK miners' strike, the film channels raw political grief into mythic narrative. Harrison, a miner's son, funded much of it himself when no studio would touch it.
The film's 'Prometheus' isn't punished by gods but by capitalism — Harrison deliberately shifts the theft of fire from divine crime to revolutionary act, making punishment the point.
CA
GB
