A piercing exploration of the human and environmental costs of coal and iron mining in inner-Mongolia, Behemoth is director Zhao Liang’s most recent feature. Shot over the course of a year and a half, the film’s rich aural and visual palettes draw the viewer into intimate proximity with the mine’s daily operations. Inspired in part by Dante’s Divine Comedy, Behemoth is both poetic and unflinching, offering a grand yet scorched landscape as evidence of unyielding, planetary devastation. In 2009 the filmmaker’s large-scale video environment was featured in the Walker exhibition Zhao Liang: Heavy Sleepers. 2015, China, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 90 minutes.
Behemoth
