Sun Under Ground

| Soil Samples Affairs
(BALi, KulturBahnhof Kassel)

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A gravel path on the edge of a village. Between fields, across to a fence. Drawn into the map of former uranium mining areas in Saxony and Thuringia. From 1946 to 1990, the Soviet corporation SAG Wismut mined uranium there for the USSR's nuclear weapons program. Above ground, socialism shines towards the future, below, the ancient rocks radiate through the torn up earth. The GDR environmental movement throws a spotlight on the way. Night. Darkness. A group of people, a flashlight, a shovel. X-ray film is buried in the gravel. The ground exposes the film, leaving a trail of its invisible rays. The film SUN UNDER GROUND follows this trace horizontally through today's landscapes, marked by mining and redevelopment, and vertically through the ground as an archive. Deep drilling through space and time traces the sedimented narratives that surround the element of uranium materially, metaphorically, and geopolitically. How does it haunt the landscape? How does it connect with the ghost of socialism? What stories and biographies surround its excavation sites? How does it radiate into its recording media? How can the spectrum of the visible be shifted to bring its invisible radiation into the image, to make it audible or palpable?

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  • Duration: 39 Min.
  • Countries: Germany
  • Languages: German
  • Subtitles: English
  • Production year: 2022

  • Director: Alex Gerbaulet, Mareike Bernien
  • Camera: Jenny Lou Ziegel
  • Editing: Mareike Bernien, Alex Gerbaulet
  • Sound: Tom Schön, Mareike Bernien, Alex Gerbaulet
  • Production: Caroline Kirberg