Paweł Pawlikowski, the director of the Oscar-winning Aida and the Oscar-nominated film Cold War, has executive produced Natalia Koniarz’s documentary Silver, about Bolivia’s highest silver mine and its endless tunnels.
“This is a sensual and poetic experience, bringing images from depth with amazing clarity,” he said of the Polish-Norwegian-Finnish co-production led by Warsaw-based Telemark. “It’s brutal, hypnotic, and very human.”
“Silver” was shot by Stanisław Kuske, who is currently co-producing Pawlikowski’s new drama “1949” with Sandra Hüller, about writer Thomas Mann (Hans Zischler) and his daughter Erika embarking on a road trip through Germany, which is still in turmoil.
“‘Silver’ changed the way I thought about cinematography in documentary films,” Kusuku said.
“At the time, I was working as a cameraman on Jonathan Glazer’s ‘Zone of Interest,’ and I had a camera set up inside the main character’s house. The camera was meant to show reality as it is. Observe, not impose.” Conniarts also emphasized, “I wanted to be on the sidelines, but I still wanted to be close.”
“This was a big responsibility because we knew there was no classic dramaturgy. The story would be told through images and sound. This made me wonder: ‘How can we tell this story from the perspective of the people we’re filming, rather than our own? How can the camera maintain intimacy without imposing emotion?’
An exclusive clip from the film is premiering here.
They accidentally ended up at the foot of Cerro Rico, Bolivia’s “man-eating mountain,” stranded in the country during a pandemic, but their plight also resulted in a document called “Postcards from the Brink.” There, miners live with their families, plagued by poverty, underground accidents, and violent thieves who threaten the welfare of their children. The average lifespan is 40 years.
“After spending months in the Andes, Stanisław arrived there in tatters and in bad shape, but that actually helped us. That was how we did it. That and perseverance. I went into the mines at any time, and they could not do that. This asymmetry still remains and cannot be overcome by any gesture of solidarity,” Koniarts added.
There is also mention of local devil worship, which is believed to keep the miners safe, but nothing is “staged or romanticized” in the film, and conditions underground were harsh.
“It was hot (inside the mine) reaching 55 degrees Celsius and there was dust everywhere. We only used mining headlamps and our pace depended on the height of the tunnel,” Kuske said.
“If there is beauty, it belongs to this vast underground space and the courage of the people and children who grow up around it. I hope that the audience is unaware of our technique and feels as if they have just laced up a miner’s boots and taken a step forward.”
He had also worked with Pawlikowski on the 2025 short “Muse,” which is when Koniarts, who is also his partner, met the acclaimed director.
“I contacted Paweł because I admire his precision and ethical approach. I also like his documentaries. He has made several works, but I especially enjoy going back to Dostoyevsky’s Travels,” she said.
“He gave me specific feedback on sound, narration, and titles. Having been working on this film for several years, I needed a critical eye. This support was important to me at the time. It was also the moment when[editor]Yael Bitton and I lost our friend Ilka Vekalahti. He was one of my co-producers and his company was a huge influence on me.”
“We knew that we didn’t want exposition or off-screen narration, and that the film couldn’t follow one main character. It had to convey its meaning through visuals and sound. It took as much discipline as spending days underground, and it took days just sitting and listening and waiting for something to happen.”
During the difficult filming, she was not only afraid of Cuscu – “He looked through the lens, I looked at his feet” – but also at times felt helpless towards the local children who continued to explore the mines alone.
“You live with these people, you make friends with them, you witness their suffering and violence, and you can’t change it or react to it. My reaction to someone else’s suffering can have an impact when I’m gone.”
She added, “I have always faced my own beliefs and biases to find an insider’s perspective.”
‘silver’
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