I
AM
A
MINER!
I AM A MINER!
The documentary is set in the Paskov mine in Ostrava, which is one of the last mines in the area and is under threat of being closed.
Black Ostrava is no longer black; this part of Silesia is in fact a pretty piece of land with picturesque remains of the industrial era. Yet for several months there was a media hype about the planned closure of the Paskov mine, culminating in the wild mining demonstration of September 17.
Was this the parties’ cheap gesture in the pre-election struggle, as the miners think? Why are they still fighting so fiercely when it has been openly stated that it is the end of the mining era in the Ostrava region and when only a small group of about ten thousand people remains of what used to be an army of hundreds of thousands of miners? Would it not be better if they accepted the proud status of a former mining community or switched their job to one at a nearby Hyundai factory? And were the recent events the last convulsions before the remains of the mines are turned into open-air museums?