30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

Hell, the coal mines; Purgatory, the ordeal of the miners sickened by grave respiratory diseases; Paradise, the ghostly cities of peripheral towns, a longed-for and illusory mirage for which lives are sacrificed. With a powerful, symbolic comparison with the three cantos of the Divine Comedy, the director tells of the devastating environmental and human consequences of the coal mines in central Mongolia. In the apocalyptic context of explosions, dust and deafening sounds, in which the life of the miners condemned to labour under inhuman conditions goes on, the mythological figure of Behemoth, the insatiable biblical figure, seems to appear.

• 

  Zhao Liang

  After studying at the Luxun Fine Arts Academy, in Shenyang, China, he worked as a photographer, video artist, and independent documentarist. His documentary films have earned prizes from the most important international festivals including Cannes, Hong Kong, DocNZ Auckland, and Tokyo are distinguished for their dramatic authenticity and acute reflection on the social problems in modern China. They have at times been banned by the Chinese government. Amongst his better-known works are Crime and Punishment (2007), Petition (2009) and Behemoth (2015, an official selection at the Festival del Cinema di Venezia).