Behemoth

Behemoth is a Chinese documentary film directed by Zhao Liang about the environmental, sociological, and public health effects of coal-mining in China and Inner Mongolia. Loosely based on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Liang’s documentary has been lauded for its surreal cinematography and poignant imagery. The film was released in competition on September 11, 2015 at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. The film was banned in China. Liang commented on the ban, saying that "even though environmental protection is a national policy, but the regional government quite disliked this type of film (虽然环保是国家政策，但是地方政府对这种电影很反感)". This was not Liang’s first banned film, as his 2009 documentary Petition was also subjected to government censorship. Synopsis Starting with an explosion on the desolate field in Inner Mongolia, Behemoth depicts a hellish large-scale landscape as a result from mining industry. Accompanied by the traditional Tuvan throat singing, the narrator, who is depicted as a naked man with his back facing the viewer, lies in the scene of smoky mountain under the control of “Behemoth”. The "guide", a man carrying a mirror reflecting the dead and the past, looks at the desolate mining field which used to be their beautiful home. Trucks run all the time in the field transporting raw coal to coke-making factories. Workers, soaked in black smoke and struck by wind, continuously take turns to mine. Their skin, due to long-term exposure to ore and sand, is pocked with red spots and black dust particles. Shifting from natural mining to industrial smelting, the camera moves to where the pollution is even more severe. But workers continue to endure the extreme working conditions and work day and night. As pointed out in the film, wealth accumulates elsewhere, but all living creatures who once inhabited the space have dispersed and the workers now living there are trapped in poverty. What’s left are the continuous explosions, smelting, atmosphere pollution, smog, and wasted water.