(Om bergen faller sönder)
Sweden, 2011, 35 min
Director and Producer: Klara Sager
Under the Surface (Om bergen faller sönder) is a documentary about uranium exploration in the north of Sweden. Barbro owns the local grocery shop in the beautiful mountain area of Hotagen. One day terrain vehicles and men with geiger indicators shows up at her shop. Something in the mountains attracts them - there has been a discovery of uranium. Soon several exploration companies arrives to the area. The mountain area is also what is left of the native land for two Sami comunities. They now see a severe treath to their possibilities to survive as a indigenous people. A film about the villagers conflict with the companies and about the hidden sides of nuclear power. It's also a story about the alarming crises of the modern world where people and nature is sacrificed in the name of development.
"Om bergen faller sönder" was selected by the International Uranium Film Festival Jury as one of the eight best documentaries of the festival.
Diretor's Statement
The work with the film took us far up to the north of Sweden, to the mountain areas. Here we encountered a land earlier unknown to us. Dramatical light phenomenas and radical changes of seasons and a people with a different perception of time, concerned with the well-being of coming generations instead of quick profits and explotation of nature. Filming in the distant mountain area required a lot from the team, working with very small resources in a harsch climate, with temperatures that could go down to minus 35 degrees Celsius. A strong motivation has been to expose some of the hidden aspects of the nuclear industry.
Klara Sager