>>REVIEW
THE DEVIL’S MINER
DIRECTED BY Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani
Monday, January 9
Engineered Air Theatre
The Devil’s Miner is a dark title for a gripping and surprisingly hopeful documentary about Basilio Vargas, a 14-year-old miner who lives with his mother and younger siblings near the Bolivian city of Potosi.
To earn money for his family, Basilio works deep in the mountain of Cerro Rico, which is known among locals as "the mountain that eats men" because so many have died there – about eight million since the conquistadors found it in the 16th century. Most of the silver has been extracted from the mountain, but locals still mine for what little is left, and boys like Basilio do much of the labour in the dusty and dangerous tunnels.
For the miners, who are mostly Catholic, the world is split into the world of God outside the mountain, and the world of the devil in the mines (they call him "Tio," which means "uncle" in Spanish). Outside the tunnels, the miners pray to God and cross themselves, but in the mines, they believe they’re at the mercy of the devil, and so they offer sacrifices of coca leaves, cigarettes and alcohol to devilish statues of Tio.
The film captures Basilio’s innocence and wonder well. When he’s not working, he has fun playing football and watching TV with his beautiful younger siblings. On his half-days of school – which he describes as vacations, because he doesn’t have to work in the dreaded mines – he has fun learning despite the awkwardness of exclusion that every child faces.
The filmmakers refuse to sensationalize the worship of Tio or the miserable plight of the child miners, and hence we see an honest, wide-eyed portrait of an unfortunate yet hopeful situation through Basilio’s eyes.
In one of many honest moments captured beautifully in the film, Basilio explains to his 12-year-old brother, who also works in the mines, that if the miners don’t appease Tio with offerings, he will trigger explosions and falling rocks and then eat the miners and their souls. The boys sit before the horned statue of Tio, sharing with each other their fear of death from the devil’s wrath. The conversation is dark, yet gentle and sincere.
Hope lies in the world outside for Basilio, far away from Cerro Rico. He dreams of one day becoming a teacher, and mining no longer in Tio’s silver veins. |
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