The Coal Miner's Day

"That's the fire emergency system. If there's a fire, it bursts and the water falls down," one of the mineworkers explains to the filmmaker. He is talking about a few bags of water, all the size of a fist, somewhat haphazardly hung from the low ceiling of the mineshaft. "Like a huge waterfall." Every day, hundreds of men risk life and limb going down into the Buzhanska mine in Ukraine to mine coal with rusty old tools from the Soviet era. It is heavy, unhealthy, hazardous work, which thanks to the relatively high pay – two to four times what people earn in the city – is nevertheless tempting to many young men. Once a year, they are honored during the Day of the Mineworker – a relic from the Soviet era when the most deserving workers receive a rose from the director of the mine in a kitschy ceremony. For the rest of the year, the workers are ignored, pestered or intimidated by their bosses, and no one is concerned with their safety. Gaël Mocaër documented their work, their comradeship and dissatisfaction in and around the mine over the course of a year. Gradually overcoming the skepticism of the mineworkers, he manages to film a series of oppressive, revealing moments.