Patrizia is the last female miner: every day she travels 500 meters un- derground to the Nuraxi Figus mine, in Gonnesa, Sulcis Inglesiente, in the province of Cagliari, along with her 150 colleagues, all men. Patrizia is the star of “Camminando nel Buio”(Walking in the dark), a documentary for which Valentina Pedicini has won the Premio Solinas and which will soon be turned into a movie produced by Alessandro Borrelli’s La Sarraz.

“We filmed in Sardinia between October and November and again at the end of January”, explains Borrelli. “A total of 25 days, which was not always easy because the miners were protesting at the time and there was a lot of tension, so often even the TV companies were sent away. At times ours were the only cameras allowed inside the mine and this was because of the relationship of trust the director had managed to build with Patrizia and her colleagues. It should also be noted that our movie was not about the mine closure and the workers’ protest, although this subject provided the backdrop for the protagonist’s story and our exploration of this dark underground world.”

The documentary will receive support from the Sardegna Film Commission, “probably in the form of a reimbursement of expenses”, says Borrelli, as well as the BLS fund (€ 50,000) for the post-production, which will take place in Bolzano. Valentina Pedicini is actually resident in Alto Adige and studied at the Zelig school, like the other members of the crew.