La Mina

Through the vision of a ten-years-old Italian girl, Mara, « La Mina » offers us a contrasted vision of Belgium in the fifties: gloomy pictures of Belgium with its coal-mines, its strikes, the mine tragedy of Marcinelle, the children’s cruelty towards immigration… We also have tender pictures of the complicity between Mara and her grandfather, when they go working the little garden near the mine or between the little girl and her friend when they play in the attic. « La mina » also shows us realistic pictures of deathwatches, the little girls running away to Italy, and above all the family party where they play the “tombola”, they get delighted over the present from Italy and they dance to the tune on Italian songs or speak about the mine and the accident.