Polish filmmaker Natalia Koniarz’s documentary Silver has just won the top prize, among other accolades, in the Opus Bonum main competition of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival (see the news). Set on and within Cerro Rico, the silver-rich mountain overlooking Potosí in the Bolivian Andes, Koniarz’s film observes an indigenous community whose existence is shaped by the mine’s fragile ecosystem, where labour, poverty and faith intertwine in continuous cycles.

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Koniarz combines observation and contemplation in her depiction of life around the mountain. Men search for veins of silver in claustrophobic tunnels, children are taught about vigilance and self-defence at school, and families mourn those who have perished in the mines. Through these fragments, Koniarz constructs a layered portrait of a community defined by extraction, from geological views of the mountain’s vast body to the daily routines of those whose livelihoods depend on it.

To capture this collective experience, Koniarz follows several community members. The gruelling labour of miners working deep underground is contrasted with the perspective of 12-year-old Juvi, who plays with hens and attends school while already being initiated into the craft of mining. His presence adds a generational dimension to the film, reflecting how the continuity of mining is passed from fathers to sons despite the dangers it entails.

Silver opens with striking images of the mountain and its cracked, desolate slopes before descending into the tunnels below. At first glance, the film recalls other documentaries on the exploitation of local labour in hazardous conditions linked to global supply chains. Yet Koniarz avoids a didactic or advocacy-driven approach. Instead, she embeds herself within the community, quietly observing its rhythms and rituals as they revolve around the mine.

The movie extends beyond a social record to reflect on the consequences of living and dying in proximity to extraction. It traces the intergenerational cycle that perpetuates mining, capturing both the necessity of it and the toll it takes. Koniarz’s structure relies on a mosaic of private and communal moments, forming a portrait of a delicate ecosystem sustained by hardship.

The legacy of colonialism is not evoked through commentary but through repetition, in gestures and routines endlessly reenacted. A classroom scene, where children recite patriotic verses about the mountain, is followed by their descent into the same shafts that claimed their fathers, or will claim them in turn, while the surviving members pray to God.

Editor Yael Bitton gives the film a measured rhythm, alternating between the brightness of life above ground and the oppressive darkness below, achieving a cohesive depiction of a community built on centuries of extraction, a foundation upon which the modern digital world still depends. Cinematographer Stanisław Cuske (who also won an award for his work at Ji.hlava) emphasises materiality and texture: the dust, sweat and roughness of rock. His lens lingers on the landscape’s austere beauty and the dim interiors of the mines, observing without intruding. The absence of any commentary or interviews reinforces the immersive and observational approach, allowing Silver to become an unadorned portrait of global industry and its impact on a local community.

Silver was produced Telemark Sp z oo (Poland), and co-produced by Piraya (Norway) and IV Films (Finland). Its international sales are handled by KFF Sales & Promotion.