Workingman's Death is a 2005 Austrian-German documentary film written and directed by Michael Glawogger. It premiered at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. The film deals with the extremes to which workers go to earn a living in several countries around the world.
| Workingman's Death | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Michael Glawogger |
| Written by | Michael Glawogger |
| Produced by | Pepe Danquart Erich Lackner Mirjam Quinte |
| Cinematography | Wolfgang Thaler |
| Edited by | Ilse Buchelt Monika Willi |
| Music by | John Zorn |
| Distributed by | Paul Thiltges Distributions |
Release dates |
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Running time | 122 minutes |
| Country | Austria |
| Languages | Pashto, Yoruba, German, English, Igbo, Indonesian, Mandarin, Russian |
The film is composed of six chapters. The first five depict hazardous conditions of hard laborers around the world and the sixth shows contrasting scenes of youths in a former German industrial complex which had been converted into a leisure park:
- "Heroes" – Miners of Donets Basin, Ukraine
- "Ghosts" – Sulfur carriers in Ijen, Indonesia
- "Lions" – Butchers in an open-air market in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
- "Brothers" – Welders in the Gadani ship-breaking yard in Pakistan
- "The Future" – Steel workers in Liaoning, China
- "Epilogue" – Youths in Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord in Germany
Reception
editThe film was met with a largely positive critical reception with a 73% approval rating reported by Rotten Tomatoes as of March 2011, with several critics praising its visual feel.[1] Walter Addiego of the San Francisco Chronicle' wrote that "Despite the hardships depicted, many sequences have a dreamlike beauty. In addition, the director has a bone-dry sense of irony; during the Ukraine scenes, he frequently cuts away to a statue of Stakhanov, the 'hero' lauded by the Soviets for his superhuman work habits".[2]
Film critic Nathan Rabin, writing for The A.V. Club, said that "Glawogger is an extraordinarily elegant filmmaker with a photographer's eye for striking compositions. He seems to have selected the jobs documented here as much for their telegenic qualities as their all-around awfulness, and he excels at divining moments of pure cinema and haunting beauty out of the most perilous places and professions on Earth".[3]
The Village Voice's Michael Atkinson wrote that "Glawogger's film may be thematically loose-jointed, but Wolfgang Thaler's cinematography is the glue; the signature move—a flowing Steadicam track before or following a subject—blooms into variations on a visceral theme, especially as it rhymes the Nigerian butchers stalking through acres of red mud dragging bull heads with the Indonesians carrying rocks down smoking, tourist-littered mountain paths".[4]
| Awarding Body | Award | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Directors Guild of America | Best Director - Documentary Feature | Michael Glawogger | Nominated |
| European Film Awards | Best Documentary | Michael Glawogger | Nominated |
| German Film Awards | Best Documentary | Pepe Danquart Erich Lackner Mirjam Quinte |
Won |
| Gijón Film Festival | Special Jury Award | Won | |
| Leipzig DOK Festival | FIPRESCI Prize | Won | |
| London Film Festival | Grierson Award | Michael Glawogger | Won |
| Yerevan Festival | Golden Apricot for Best Documentary | Won |
References
edit- ^ "Rotten Tomatoes: Workingman's Death". rottentomatoes.com. Flixster. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
- ^ Addiego, Walter (5 May 2006). "Workingman's Death". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
- ^ Rabin, Nathan (21 February 2006). "Workingman's Death". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
- ^ Atkinson, Michael (14 February 2006). "Men at Work". The Village Voice. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
