Regional Competition

In the Breza mine not much has changed in the past fifty years. Despite the dust and the darkness, 400 meters below ground, the miners still live in solidarity and have the same job security they had during socialist Yugoslavia. Above the ground, capitalism and individuality are the new order. The film follows Sabika, the last remaining female miner in Breza. Her life underground is a remnant of a bygone time – a time when the crisis and a lack of workforce led women to go below the surface and the governments strived to improve their position. When she turns fifty, she will have grounds for retirement. Once she steps out of the shaft and says goodbye to this peculiar way of life, will she also leave behind a part of her identity? The film explores what it means to be a miner at the end of the fossil fuel age and what it means to be a woman in contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina.