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Original Name: Fireflies in the Abyss
English Name: Fireflies in the Abyss
Year: 2016
Run Time: 88 mins
Language: English, Hindi, Nepali
Type (Colour/ Black & White): Colour
Country: India
Director: Chandrasekhar Reddy
Producer: Chandrasekhar Reddy
DOP: Chandrasekhar Reddy
Editor: AbhroBanerji
Sound Designer: Gissy Michael
Chandrasekhar Reddy has worked as producer – director for BBC, National Geographic Asia, Discovery Asia and the United Nations Development Program. His films include: Don’t Rubbish It (2010), Creative Climate (2011), My Brilliant Brain (2013) and Coalboy: Mind the Gap (2014), which was shown in IDFA, Uppsala Film Fest and several other festivals. Fireflies in the Abyss is his first feature documentary.
The ‘rat-hole’ mines in the Jaintia Hills of Northest India are hostile pits where men and boys risk their lives every day to scratch coal out of hard rock. Each of them come to coal pit for different reasons, but once there, only a few are able to escape it later. Suraj , an 11 year old boy, grapples his way out of this abyss to eventually put himself in school. The film follows Suraj and other miners to reveal their lives under these extraordinary circumstances and the brutal choices they are forced to confront at every turn.
