An incredible piece of trash, with cheeky "artsy" pretensions.<br /><br />The cardboard myth, the cinematic Potemikiniade, the clay-footed colossus that is Lucian Pintilie shows again his hideous and incompetent face.<br /><br />He was once upon a time, several decades ago, a talented theater director and a promising movie-maker - but he never had the resources to substantiate his career. He simply has no grasp of what the cinematographic aesthetics MEAN. He believes that filmic art is synonymous with hysteria, brutality, vulgarity - and, oh yes, exhibitionism! If he doesn't command the actors to take all their clothes off and parade their nakedness in front of himself and the camera, he doesn't feel he's alive! This scabrous piece of film about the Romanian miners is one of the most amateurish and trivial he ever made. It's amazing, how certain semidoctes can achieve intellectual orgasms by watching this worthless insult to decent cinema.