Behemoth

Zhao Liang : 2015
Bei xi mo shou

Everyday life in a Mongolian community turns into a Dantesque journey. A documentary offering a dissecting view on contemporary society and economic development and, at the same time, a tragedy of the absurd and a commentary on human imprudence and avidity. With camera in tow, filmmaker Zhao Liang travels through the prairies of Mongolia's vast plateau. Unfolding before his eyes are the signs of controversial upheaval due to an aggressive modern economy. Heavenly green grasslands are being covered by the gloomy dust of a growing mining industry. Confronted with the ash and infernal din of incessant mining, herdsmen and their families have no choice but to move away as grazing meadows dwindle. Day and night, miners are busy picking out coals from mountains of rocks. In nearby ironworks, men bake in the scorching heat like the condemned in Inferno. In a sort of Purgatorio, sufferers of work-related illnesses await death in hospital. A genuine Paradiso has been destroyed in exchange for an urban mirage, the empty new buildings of modern ghost town Ordos. Zhao Liang's documentary was winner of the SIGNIS Award and Green Drop Award when it premiered in competition at Venice International Film Festival 2015.