UNTERTAGE
Niederlande 2003 – Director: Jiska Rickels – Original language: German – Subtitles: English – Length: 24,5 min.
An impressionistic documentary which takes you to a world where colours vanish, sound is distorted, and machines make music.
While researching for another movie, Himmelfilm, director Jiska Rickels met a group of miners from the Lohberg-Osterfeld mines in Germany. When they offered to show her their working place, Rickels followed them down 1200 metres with a Bolex clockwork camera, since normal equipment was banned for fear of explosions.
This film lets us glimpse into a world of great dangers, where each human life is put in the hands of Holy Barbara to get safely back up again. This coal-mine is hell and heaven at once. Its beauty and fellowship cannot be captured by words; you have to undertake this journey to catch a glimpse of this world that's about to distinct.
This film school graduation production has already been awarded several prizes.
