Continuing on with the political themes of Crime and Punishment and Petition, Behemoth sees Liang Zhao explore the lives of migrant workers in China as they toil in quarries and coal mines. The style is strictly observational. There are no interviews and no investigations with Zhao letting the visuals do the talking; one sequence shows dirt heaps encroaching on the lush pastures nearby with herdsmen having no choice but to move their sheep and goats on - their old life a minor nuisance in the face of this unstoppable industry drive.
Admittedly Behemoth's charms aren't clear at the outset. In a rather drab and uninvolving opening, the mind can wander and the images – either wide shots of gargantuan quarries or the dark, close confines of the underground pits - are presented mostly without comment or feeling. But slowly a narrative, and a searing, pointed socio-political message, begins to form. This is hell and there's no hope. Like the soulless workers in Metropolis, the tasks the miners are engaged in look energy-zapping but pointless.
When Zhao opts for a less observational distance and gets in amongst the workers one can see the toil the job takes on the body – first superficial, with one worker picking away at his calloused hands, before moving on to more detrimental effects. One can only guess at the psychological torment going on behind those pained eyes that are buried in sweat and dirt and grimace. No one smiles. No one speaks. Save for the occasional cryptic semi-biblical narration there is no speech at all. Through Zhao's lens China is a post-apocalyptic landscape with nothing but workers and an endless convoy of huge trucks surviving the blast. When his cameras do reach civilisation he finds only monstrous ghost cities of pristine streets and endless tower blocks, like some kid went crazy with Lego.
What lets the side down is when Zhao tries too hard. Dotted throughout is the image of a naked man lying on a slag heap on the lip of a quarry while another man carries a mirror on his back. These moments feel forced and fake and not in keeping with the truth of everything else.
Behemoth is a studied documentary with a deliberate pace kept throughout: even the finale's gut punch comes on slow.
