Pit No.8

Director: Marianna Kaat

Country: Estonia, Ukraine

Year of production: 2010

Duration: 95 min

Subject:

The citizen and the state
Human dignity
Human rights

Audience:

Employees of penitentiary system

Reform:

In the heart of Ukrainian coal-mining region everybody digs – retirees, unemployed miners and even the children. Years ago, the town's desperate residents decided to start mining illegally; they excavate everywhere: in abandoned mines, under the basements of demolished buildings, in the neighborhood woods and leisure parks, as well as in their own vegetable gardens. The story focuses on the Sikanov family, which has three children. Fifteen-year-old Yura, the grandson of once powerful Soviet plant director, puts his dreams on hold in an emotionally riveting struggle to provide for his sisters the only way possible: illegally, and perilously, mining the remaining scraps in once-thriving Ukrainian coal town.

director

Marianna Kaat

Marianna Kaat was born and lives in Estonia, Tallin. She graduated from the St.Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy in Russia in 1986 with a PhD. Until 1991 she worked as a script editor and a director for Eesti Telefilm and thereafter as the acquisition manager for Estonian Television. In 1998 she founded her own production company Baltic Film Production and since then has successfully produced and directed documentary films for the international market which have won numerous national and international awards. Marianna's company produces also features and TV series.