Depicting Italy’s only coalmine fighting for its life, From the Depths glides like hypnotic poetry hinting at a superhuman force hovering around the mineworkers’ struggle. Tension builds on the threat of the mine being closed – for reasons devoid of any tangible connection to the life underground.

The mine has been a part of workers’ lives for generations. The dream-like atmosphere finds expression in highly stylised imagery and a captivating soundscape of monotony. The dismal facility turns into the film’s central character, which conveys its true power only by drill bits penetrating the ground in a humming silence that weighs on the workers.

Breaking certain principles of the workers’ revolution, the film takes a biblical tone and strongly suggests a presence of the unknown. The true motives of the workers and the owners of the mine, whoever they may be, remain unpronounced, which only makes the cinematic intensity of the struggle in the dark speak volumes.

Text: Lauri Holma / Translation: Tapio Reinekoski

Language: Italian
Subtitles: English