Workingman's Death

Workingman’s Death combines a pretty valiant stab at a conceptual documentary with a pretty credible cri-de-coeur about the worldwide victimization of labour. If I’m not entirely satisfied with either it’s not for lack of creativity and even less for lack of caring. Michael Glawogger separates his film into five blocks of unprotected workers the world over: illegal coal miners in the Ukraine; sulphur collectors in Indonesia; scrap metal salvagers in Pakistan; factory workers in China; and the men of an open-air Nigerian slaughterhouse. Terrible hours, dangerous working conditions (the Indonesian segment takes place at an active volcano) and a sense of total insignificance are the order of the day, with the most devastating realization coming when the men can do nothing but shrug and accept the rules of the game. Glawogger is supremely tactile; I can’t remember a documentary that gave this pervasive sense of place, where no matter where you are you’re trapped in a world that doesn’t care. This giveth and taketh away. Where many political documentaries are awash in facts without a human face, this is a series of personal defeats without context — the film cries out for a few supporting details that would deepen our understanding of the workers’ suffering. And Glawogger foolishly leaves the colonial West out of his equation; though this is partly an attempt to expose neo-colonialism and globalization it flatters our vanity and conceals certain internal oppressions. Still, it’s a pretty impressive achievement and should hold the indifferent far longer than a conventional harangue ever could. The only extra is an outstanding director’s commentary where Glawogger fills in a lot of detail and reveals his serious dedication.