Underplayed Gems

Workingman's Death (2005)

Workingman's Death poster
Directed by
Michael Glawogger
Genre
documentary film
Country
Germany, Austria
Runtime
2h 06m
Rated
15+
Rating
7.0 of 10 from 31 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

This documentary shows people in different countries doing extremely dangerous physical work for a living. It follows miners in Ukraine, sulfur carriers in Indonesia, butchers in Nigeria, ship-breakers in Pakistan, and steel workers in China, and ends with young people in a former industrial site turned park in Germany.

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What happens

Workingman's Death is a 2005 Austrian-German documentary film written and directed by Michael Glawogger. It premiered at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. The film deals with the extremes to which workers go to earn a living in several countries around the world. The film is composed of six chapters. The first five depict hazardous conditions of hard laborers around the world and the sixth shows contrasting scenes of youths in a former German industrial complex which had been converted into a leisure park: "Heroes" – Miners of Donets Basin, Ukraine "Ghosts" – Sulfur carriers in Ijen, Indonesia "Lions" – Butchers in an open-air market in Port Harcourt, Nigeria "Brothers" – Welders in the Gadani ship-breaking yard in Pakistan "The Future" – Steel workers in Liaoning, China "Epilogue" – Youths in Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord in Germany (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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