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All That Glitters

2011 · 99 min

A patient, quietly sobering observational documentary that lingers on a remote mining community, letting nostalgia and grievance sit uneasily beside industrial ruin.

Directed by
Tomáš Kudrna
Genres
Documentary
Overview
At first glance, time seems to have stood still in the west Kyrgyz village of Barskon. Veterans of the Second World War enjoy the greatest respect and many of the people here look back with nostalgia at the socialist era, when everyone had work, healthcare was free and "we all had it just as good". The gulags seem to be the only thing the locals have somehow forgotten about… One of the protagonists in the film is the slightly mysterious truck driver Nurbek, who has been working with his wife for 10 years in the local gold mine known as Kumtor. This is the place where the director Tomáš Kudrna faithfully documents the peculiar form of capitalism and democracy that prevails in a country that looks like an open-air Soviet museum. We see the petty disputes between the locals and also look at the events of 1998, when two tonnes of cyanide leaked into the river from the Kumtor mine and poisoned hundreds of villagers.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
Directed by
Tomáš Kudrna
Genres
Documentary
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
    Pacing
    slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
    Attention
    engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
    Themes
    • class
    • power
    • environment
    • memory
    • work
    Places
    • countryside
    • workplace
    Era
    contemporary
    Audience
    adult
    Form
    • documentary
    • true story
    Content intensity
    • Gore none
    • Language mild
    • Violence none
    • Sex none
    All scales, 0 to 10
    Scales, 0 to 10
    ScaleValue0 to 10
    Action1
    Horror1
    Humour2
    Realism10
    Romance1
    Tension3
    Darkness6
    Complexity6
    Emotional weight6

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    Where to watch in the UK

    No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

    Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

    Details

    Genres
    documentary
    Directed by
    Tomáš Kudrna
    Written by
    Joe Bini, Tomáš Kudrna
    Music
    Mark degli Antoni
    Cinematography
    Tomáš Kudrna, Jakub Halousek
    Runtime
    99 min
    Country
    Czech Republic, Kyrgyz Republic

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