The Pit
Director: Marianna Kaat
Logline: Once prosperous during the Soviet era, the small town of Snezhnoje inEast Ukraine now lives in poverty. The town’s desperate residents decide tostart mining on their own.
Synopsis: It is a modern fairy tale about survival miracles in the East-Ukraine mining town Snezhnoje, the hub of illegal mining business. The Donbass region, which prospered during the Soviet era and where miners were spoiled with all sorts of privileges, now lives in poverty. Years ago, the town’s desperate residents decided to start mining on their own; excavating takes place all around, in abandoned mines, under the basements of demolished buildings, in the neighborhood woods as well as in their own vegetable gardens. Everybody digs – women, retirees, unemployed miners and even the children. The town starts to recover slowly.