The Miner

In Slovenia in 2009, Alija, a Bosnian worker who has spent thirty years in the mines, is told to certify that a pit due for closure is empty. The company is to be sold and the job must be done quickly. But deep in the shaft Alija finds the remains of people killed and left there just after the Second World War. He is told to stop digging; he keeps going, and thousands of dead come to light, among them women and civilians. He lost his own sister in the genocide in Bosnia in 1995, and he insists that the dead must be brought out and buried. Hanna Slak’s ninety eight minute Slovenian film is drawn from a true case; Leon Lučev takes the lead.