China's unsustainable development threatens humanity: the film denounces it and wins the Green Drop Award at Venice.

BEHEMOTH FILM –

Among the many films that participated in the 72nd edition of the Venice Film Festival only one was able to best interpret the themes of sustainability and ecologyThis is “Beixi Moshuo – Behemoth” by Chinese director Zhao Liang, who won the Green Drop Award, the collateral prize organized by Green Cross Italy.

A film that, most likely, will not be distributed in China because, as the director himself said in a press conference: "Today here in the theater there is only one Chinese journalist and he was very brave. It is very likely that the film will be censored in my country for the subject I have chosen to address, but most likely will be banned without even being seen. Well, I'd like them to see it before censoring it, because I think it's useful."

BEIXI MOSHUO –

The destructive action of man has led to to disembowel a Mountains of Mongolia, there the workers who work continuously day and night get sick until they die. An effort that ultimately proves futileThe materials that the workers extract from the mines are in fact used to build the ghost city (the exact number of which is still unknown today) full of apartment blocks and deserted streets. Moreover, the construction companies that build them are listed on the stock exchange and, for this reason, they must operate even if their products lead to nothing.

Referring explicitly to Dante's work, Behemoth tells theinferno sulla terra, where the mine they are real groups that trap men and women by making them breathe only coal dust. What awaits them is the purgatory hospital. And the paradise, which should be represented by modern life, by new buildings, does not exist: it is a place unnatural e desert.

SEE ALSO: The ranking of films to watch to understand climate change

A journey that leaves much to the images and little to the sounds: there is no music, only the noise of the moving machinery, and the narrator's voice It's the only common thread throughout the film's 95 minutes. The miners don't speak; their coal-stained faces and calloused hands do.

"In the Divine Comedy, Dante travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise in a dream. In Behemoth, I drew inspiration from Dante and depicted a huge industrial chain, where the colors red, gray, and blue respectively represent Dante's three kingdoms," explained Zhao Liang. "Through the film's contemplative gaze, I analyze the living conditions of workers and the senseless urban development. It is my critical meditation on modern civilization, in which wealth accumulates while man perishes."

GREEN DROP AWARD 2015 –

“Poised between poetry and metaphysical reflection, the film reveals itself as a documentary denouncing the unsustainable development of China and industrialised societies – commented the jury of the Green Drop Award, chaired by Remo Girone It's composed by Sebastiano Somma, Francesca Inaudi, Paola Comin e Lucia Grenna, campaign manager Connect4Climate by the World Bank –. Men, women, the environment, and nature are depicted as sacrificed in the name of a progress that, in a final twist, turns out to be nonexistent. In the Dantean journey simulated by the Chinese director, there is no salvation, but rather a moral lesson, a warning for viewers around the globe.

A story that, ultimately, isn't just about China: "I think we should all stop and think after watching this film, which isn't just about China but about all of us. How work and industrial production aren't the end but the means," he commented. Marco Gisotti, director of the Green Drop Award –. 'Behemoth' is probably the most political film of the entire Festival this year”.

An award ceremony that was also seen in light of the important event of Paris: “This year's edition of the Green Drop Award was the most challenging for us – said Elio Pacilio, president of Green Cross Italy –. In about 90 days from today, the climate negotiations will take place at International Conference of the Parties in ParisFrom Venice, through cinema, we want to launch an appeal for these negotiations to be successful. The future of humanity also depends on this, and cinema, with its artists and its spectators, can do a lot."

THE DROP –

The drop of glass blown in Murano and containing sand from Sudan arrived at the Lido aboard a DeLorean DMC-12, the car model made famous by the film "Back to the Future", Thanks to Italian Consortium of Composters.

TO KNOW MORE: How to combat climate change

The car, in fact, symbolizes how cinematic fiction managed to imagine a green innovation that would materialize thirty years later. In the second episode of the trilogy, "Doc" (Christopher Lloyd) refuels with organic waste to travel in time from 1985 to October 21, 2015. What was only cinematic fiction three decades ago has now become reality thanks to biomethane, a renewable fuel obtained by refining the biogas generated by so-called "anaerobic digestion" (a technique used in recycling the organic fraction of waste that allows for the combination of material and energy recovery).