Stephan Bernardes

In a ruined and forgotten landscape, two border outposts are separated by a creaking gate. After countless years of loneliness, the old and nihilistic watchman Hugo is taken by surprise by the arrival of the young and disciplined Didot on the other side of the border. Will the dark past repeat itself?

Is tradition the highest honor or the greatest misfortune? The village of Pöhla is debating this. Despite the devastating health consequences, mining traditions are still kept alive in the Ore Mountains 30 years after reunification. With the closure of the last (uranium) mines in 1992, which irreversibly shaped the land and its people for 800 years, people were forced to build a new tourist identity. Especially during Advent, the "Christmas Land" combines old traditions with economic interest - whether baking stollen, singing together during the Metten shift in the mine or performing Christmas mass. Between the conflicting priorities of being named a World Heritage Site and the commissioning of a pilot plant for mining tin and tungsten, the film tells the story of this special time of year above and below ground - and thus paints a psychogram of a region that is struggling to find its identity in 2019.

In a ruined and forgotten landscape, two border outposts are separated by a creaking gate. After countless years of loneliness, the old and nihilistic watchman Hugo is taken by surprise by the arrival of the young and disciplined Didot on the other side of the border. Will the dark past repeat itself?

In a ruined and forgotten landscape, two border outposts are separated by a creaking gate. After countless years of loneliness, the old and nihilistic watchman Hugo is taken by surprise by the arrival of the young and disciplined Didot on the other side of the border. Will the dark past repeat itself?

Is tradition the highest honor or the greatest misfortune? The village of Pöhla is debating this. Despite the devastating health consequences, mining traditions are still kept alive in the Ore Mountains 30 years after reunification. With the closure of the last (uranium) mines in 1992, which irreversibly shaped the land and its people for 800 years, people were forced to build a new tourist identity. Especially during Advent, the "Christmas Land" combines old traditions with economic interest - whether baking stollen, singing together during the Metten shift in the mine or performing Christmas mass. Between the conflicting priorities of being named a World Heritage Site and the commissioning of a pilot plant for mining tin and tungsten, the film tells the story of this special time of year above and below ground - and thus paints a psychogram of a region that is struggling to find its identity in 2019.

Is tradition the highest honor or the greatest misfortune? The village of Pöhla is debating this. Despite the devastating health consequences, mining traditions are still kept alive in the Ore Mountains 30 years after reunification. With the closure of the last (uranium) mines in 1992, which irreversibly shaped the land and its people for 800 years, people were forced to build a new tourist identity. Especially during Advent, the "Christmas Land" combines old traditions with economic interest - whether baking stollen, singing together during the Metten shift in the mine or performing Christmas mass. Between the conflicting priorities of being named a World Heritage Site and the commissioning of a pilot plant for mining tin and tungsten, the film tells the story of this special time of year above and below ground - and thus paints a psychogram of a region that is struggling to find its identity in 2019.