Or de vie

OR DE VIE is a documentary filmed at a gold mine in southern Burkina Faso. Teenage boy Rasmané and his peers work daily from morning until night in the mines. Without safety clothing and under the most precarious of conditions, they work 100 metres underground to the point of exhaustion, armed with nothing but pickaxes to get to the much-longed-for gold. The fact that they are minors is of no concern. They are simply left to their own devices, relying entirely on themselves to extract the gold if they want to get paid for their labour. We get a detailed impression of how the mines work, how they operate on a day-to-day basis and the constant risks involved. The camera never feels voyeuristic; it mostly stays with Rasmané and tries to capture his emotions as he goes about his business and communicates to the various supervisors on site. In his rare moments of leisure, we see him and his colleagues cook, eat together and engage in conversations about themselves, their aspirations, their experiences of growing up and their families. The director creates an incredible rapport with those around him; towards the end of the film, we find out why. (Jacqueline Nsiah)