Surfarara

Caption: "The sulfur mines are scattered across the vast rural land of central Sicily. Few structures bear witness to the dark struggle and, at times, the invisible tragedy that takes place in the bowels of the earth. In them, as in the fields and the sea, the immense and noble drama of human labor is played out every day." Dawn barely lights the sky when the miners flock to the mouths of the shafts. A slow and solemn song comments on these images. The men of the night shift emerge to the surface after eight hours of work, the newcomers await their moment to descend into the mine. The chattering, excited animation characteristic of the beginning and end of work is created. Then the cages receive their human load and descend rapidly for hundreds of meters. Now all that is heard is the dripping on the walls of the shaft, the sliding of the skates in the wooden guides. Having reached the level where they work, the men set off and disperse into the tunnels. We hear the sound of footsteps, distant calls that echo reverberating from the narrow vaults. The miners prepare for work, push the wagons and prepare the drills.

A long fade takes us outside. The sun is now high and beats down on the farmers busy working in the fields, on the women washing clothes, on the village where the cries of street vendors resound. The women take care of the housework, the little girls gathered together embroider. Their image dissolves into that of the miners drilling. The work has now begun. Others with poles move the mineral crushed by the explosion of the mines, others load the wagons. The work, punctuated by the song of the drill, proceeds more and more pressingly, tightly. Then, suddenly everyone stops and remains still as if a danger were threatening them. A moment of tension that soon dissolves into the notes of the song that commented on the initial scenes.

We are outside again. The miners and farmers return to their homes, enter the village. The sun sets and the children wait on the threshold.