Conversations (1983)

• 67%
• 1983
• Documentary
• Drahomíra Vihanová
• Mikulás Litvák
• Michal Strejcek
• Bóza Blazej

Eight tunnellers, led by Mikulás Litvák, go down with the lift for a new shift in the underground, close to the Máj department store. Each day they build a new meter on the B1 line of the Metro. In 14 years of work they have made 7 km of corridors and tunnels. The work is hard and sometimes dangerous. But they are a tight group, which trust each other's skillfulness. Litvak's gang is called fire-eaters, which means tunnellers who get stuck wholeheartedly in their job. The work is well paid, but most of them don't do it for money only. 24 year old Michal Strejcek left a factory work, because he found it an ever-repeating grind, where he in the evenings felt that nothing had been achieved. But when you build a tunnel you achieve something every day. 50 year old Míla Zima says that each detonation, each rock is different. One has to be on one's toe and think all the time. The mates mean a lot. 57 year old Mikulás Litvák says that the harder the environment the closer people get.