A car engine wrapped in clingfilm hangs in the air from a forklift truck, ready to be sent for export after the last drops of oil have run out. That this object also resembles a mountain crystal is characteristic of Sebastian Brameshuber’s documentary MOVEMENTS OF A NEARBY MOUNTAIN (Austria/France 2019), which moves away from real material from time to time. Interwoven with the local legend of the water sprite that promised humankind eternal quantities of iron ore in the mining district of Styria, it shows how Cliff takes apart used cars in a remote warehouse at the foot of the mountain of ore in order to sell them in his old home in Nigeria or in eastern Europe. He is enveloped in great silence when he works alone in the big workshop, cooks on an open fire, or washes t-shirts. He lives an existence on the margins – and yet is still part of an economic chain of utilization attached to global trade. By concentrating on his actions, the macro shines forth in the micro.
(Arsenal Kino)