Cine Outsider header
Left bar Home button Disc reviews button Film review button Articles button Blogs button Interviews button Right bar
news archive
Older news stories have been archived by year and month, most recent first. They can be accessed by clicking on the links below.
2024 2023 2022
2021 2020 2019
2018 2017 2016
2015 2014 2013
2012 2011 2010
2009 2008 2007
2006 2005 2004
 
In the Pit (En El Hoyo) on DVD in June

8 June 2010

Mexican legend states that for every bridge built the devil would ask for one soul, so that the bridge never fell. The documentary In the Pit (En El Hoyo) tells the story of the workers who are constructing a 17-kilometre second deck for Mexico City's inner Periférico freeway, and in doing so, transforming the city, its landscape and the lives of its inhabitants.

In the Pit is the story of those whose hands and sweat go into the making of this mammoth work of concrete, steel and asphalt: their hopes and dreams, their stoicism and their dignity; ultimately, their survival. Contrasts, emotions and small moments culminate in the loss of a soul taken by the devil – a soul that will remain as a memory of the workers who built the Second Deck.

Juan Carlos Rulfo's multi-award-winning documentary (including the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize) explores both the construction and the city that it is to serve. While the progress of the second deck is the structural and temporal basis of the film, a series of impressionistic vignettes captures the day-to-day lives of those involved in the construction: the hard worker, the liar, the joker, the player. We see the workers' places of origin – Michoacán, Estado de Mexico; we participate in their lives – funerals, festivities, music, dinner, rest. Above all, In the Pit presents the human face of anonymous labour.

In the Pit will be released on UK DVD on 21st June 2010 by Network Releasing at the RRP of £15.99. The single listed extra is a 'making-of' documentary.

To view the trailer here.