Rent In the Pit (2006)
3.7 of 5 from 48 ratings
1h 20min
- General info
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- Synopsis:
Mexican legend recounted that for every bridge built the devil would ask for one soul, so that the bridge never fell. This film tells the story of the workers who are constructing a 17-kilometre second deck for Mexico City's inner Periferico 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 - Michoacan, 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.- Actors:
- Salvador Enriquez Castillo, Sofia García López, José Guadalupe Calzada, Isabel Dolores Hernández, Alejandro Moten, Isahín Octaviano Simón, Pedro Sánchez Bernal, Natividad Sánchez Montes, Vicencio Martínez Vázquez, Agustín Zárate Centeno
- Directors:
- Juan Carlos Rulfo
- Producers:
- Eugenia Montiel, Juan Carlos Rulfo
- Writers:
- Juan Carlos Rulfo
- Aka:
- En el hoyo
- Studio:
- Network UK
- Genres:
- Documentary
- Countries:
- Mexico
- Awards:
2006 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Jury Prize Documentary
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Reviews (1) of In the Pit
Mariachi motorway! - In the Pit review by TE
Excellent documentary which concentrates on the ordinary labourers working on the construction of a huge new motorway bridge in Mexico City.
There is a subversive humour about all of these men, with their fatalistic philosophies of life and their macho banter.
The film is full of memorable images and close-ups of the tough working conditions and the danger they face.
The final sequence is shot from a low-flying helicopter which swoops along the full length of the bridge, with each gang of waving workers looking exactly like the ones we have met in the main body of the film.
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