THE END OF DARKNESS
27 minutes, 2018
Director : Ranko PAUKOVIC (Croatia)
Production : Spiritus Movens Productions (Croatia)
Over the past 50 years little has changed at the Breza coal mine in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite the coal dust and darkness, 400 metres below the surface, miners continue to benefit from the solidarity and employment security which characterized Yugoslavia’s socialist era. Now Capitalism and individualism are the key words.
This film follows Sakiba, one of the last workers in the Breza mines. Her underground existence is a relic from another age, when the oil crisis and labour shortages forced women to work and the government tried to improve their conditions.
When she is 50 Sakiba will be able to retire, but when she comes back to the surface and says goodbye to this important chapter of her life, will she leave some of her identity behind?
“The End of Darkness” explores what it means to work in the mines as the fossil fuel era draws to a close, and to be a woman in Bosnia and Herzegovina today.
Ranko PAUKOVIC was born in Zagreb in 1960. A graduate in Drama, he worked as assistant editor on several international co-productions filmed in Croatia. En 1991 he went to live in Holland, where he worked as sound editor for Dutch directors. In 1993 he created Editson Studios and specialised in sound conception, sound editing and sound mixing. He is based in Amsterdam.
A few years ago he made his first film as director with the feature-length documentary “White House” (2015) about the white stone on the island of Brač in Croatia. His second documentary, “90 seconds in North Korea“, has been shown at many festivals. Ranko also teaches sound design at the University of Zagreb.