Hard, backbreaking labor is the subject of Austrian filmmaker Michael Glawogger's documentary Workingman's Death, which serves up brutally detailed portraits of ordinary people struggling to eke out an existence in various regions of the world, some still operating at pre-industrial levels. Following a prologue featuring historical footage celebrating prodigiously productive workers of the Soviet era, the first of five segments introduces viewers to a group of workers extracting coal from an abandoned mine by hand, simply to survive. The second takes us to Indonesia, where men cart heavy loads of sulfur carved from volcanic cliffs down to collection areas in baskets on their shoulders. The third travels to a large square in Nigeria, where animals are publicly slaughtered, skinned and boiled (the usual stipulation that “no animals were harmed in the making of this picture” hardly applies here, and those who cannot tolerate the sight of extremely explicit bloodletting are forewarned). The fourth covers Pakistanis disassembling huge tanker ships, and the fifth looks at Chinese steelworkers, with an epilogue filmed at an old German steelworks that's been transformed into a park. Workingman's Death effectively conveys the dangerous, physically cruel conditions in which many people still work, but its deliberate, repetitive character—including interludes in which subjects discuss their labor—makes it seem longer than its two-hour running time. Still, the film is evocatively photographed, and features moments that are both poignant and harrowing, making this a strong optional purchase, with the caveat about that disturbing Nigerian sequence. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
Workingman's Death
(2005) 122 min. In Russian, Bahasa Indonesian, English, Ibu, Yoruba, Pashtu, and Mandarin w/English subtitles. DVD: $300. Seventh Art Releasing. PPR. Color cover. Volume 21, Issue 5
Workingman's Death
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