Macedonian Film Festival - The Lead Brigade

Sponsors:

UofT - Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

The Lead Brigade (Оловна бригада)

Released: 1980 - Macedonia
Duration: 115 minutes
Classification: Feature film

Director: Kiril Cenevski
Screenplay: Kiril Cenevski
Leading Roles: Kole Angelovski, Dancho Chevrevski, Darko Damevski, Ilija Dzuvalekovski, Aco Jovanovski, Meto Jovanovski, Blagoja Spirkoski – Dzumerko, Pavle Vuisic, Milja Vujanovic, Miralem Zupchevic

Synopsis: Winter in a mine settlement. The work in the mine is running at the usual pace. The mining engineer Lazar is also among the miners in the mineshaft. A miner, called The Major, is distributing the couples for mining. The warning sirens sound the alarm, interrupting the mine work. Coming for work from nearly villages three miners are covered with snow somewhere in the mountains. All of the miners are ready to help but they arrive too late for one of them. One of the mineshafts is closed down for work as it is considered to be too dangerous. Particularly it is the deposits, which should be used, in solar experiments. The engineer Lazar is a young man and a man of principles who represents and supports the miner's interests. In the mine head office he speaks about the unsuitable conditions under which the miners work, as well as about their low wages. But his complaints do not touch the manager of the mine. Lazar's wife comes to visit him as she lives separately in another town. Their marriage is unsuccessful and not promising. As they are quarrelling permanently with each other he insists on her leaving, as if he supposes that her presence is because of her interests in trading valuable minerals.
The discovery of the new minerals causes too many negative situations not only to Lazar's colleagues but even to the inspector, who is Lazar's old friend. Lazar's stay in the town is a rare occasion to see his son. A disaster happens in the mine. The miners are trapped underground. The disaster is caused by an explosion, which happens because of the thieves of valuable minerals. The buried miners are trying to find a way out of the mine. The group inside the mine gets divided. In a way it signifies the separation of the interests of the ordinary miners f side and from the other interests of the manager's miners. It is also an opportunity to clear out some of the previous accounts and quarrels between him, who is also in the mine and the oldest miner, named Blagoja. During the war they were fighting together for freedom but later on, at their work they took positions on the opposite sides. Finally the miners succeed in clearing away both the exit and rescuing their relations and they appear at the surface.
Awards
1980 FYFF, Pula, Golden Arena for best camera / Misho Samoilovski
1980 FYFF, Pula, The Prize "Prvomajska" ("The First of May") for the best film with contemporary theme
1980 A Film Prize from the miners from "Rasha"

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