L’mina

Elderly miners gather for a group portrait. They once worked in the coal mine in Jerada, in northeastern Morocco, until it was officially closed in 2001. And yet, miners still go underground every day—clandestinely, because no economic alternative has ever been offered in the region to replace this grueling labor.

Randa Maroufi’s L’mina pays tribute to the miners of past and present, and she works closely with the people of Jerada—not through interviews, but by using an ingenious combination of techniques, including 3D scanning and studio work. Since filming in a real mine shaft would have been too dangerous, she had a detailed one reconstructed. There, she asked the miners to demonstrate the daily risks they face, from cave-ins to sudden releases of methane gas.

In long, fluid camera movements, Maroufi creates tableaux vivants of a shadow industry that shouldn’t really exist. She immerses the viewer in a world that seems almost mythical—a vision that earned her the Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for short film at the Critic’s Week in Cannes.