GOOD LUCK

By Ben RUSSELL

GÖTEBORG FILM FESTIVAL - as DISTR VOD

Documentary - Completed 2017

Filmed between a state-owned large-scale underground mine in the post-war state of Serbia and an illegal mining collective in the tropical heat of Suriname, Good Luck is a visceral non-fiction portrait of hope and sacrifice in a time of global economic turmoil.  

Festivals
& Awards

Toronto - TIFF 2017
Wavelengths
Locarno 2017
Concorso Internazionale
Rotterdam IFF 2018
Signatures
    • Year of production
    • 2017
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • FRANCE, GERMANY
    • Languages
    • SERBIAN
    • Duration
    • 143 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Ben RUSSELL
    • Producer(s)
    • Janja KRALJ (KINOELEKTRON), Guillaume CAILLEAU (CasK Films)
    • Synopsis
    • Beginning with a 600-meter descent into the depths of the earth, Good Luck shines a flashlight onto the human face of labor in the time-warp’d working conditions of an underground state-owned mine in Serbia.  The hiss of oxygen cuts through the diesel rumble, the walls of the office vibrate with explosions two levels below; war-torn and half-forgotten, these miners’ physical struggle finds its mirror a continent away - in the tropical heat of an illegal Surinamese gold mine.  The water pumps roar under the blinding sun; silver liquid rolls across the hand of a Saramaccan Maroon as he adds mercury to dirt in a never-ending search for gold. 

      Formed between dark and light, cold and heat, North and South, Good Luck immerses its viewer in the precarious natural and social environments of two distinct labor groups so as to better understand the bonds that men share. In a time of global economic turmoil, here is the human foundation of capital, revealed.