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Section: Competition of European Feature Documentaries for Young Audience

If You Are a Man (2022) 12

Thirteen-year-old Opio works in a gold mine in Burkina Faso. He sings and laughs to calm himself as he ventures into the dark and dangerous depths of the mine for the first time. He is still too young to descend to the bottom of the deep pit where adult miners mine gold – and sometimes dead bodies. But tirelessly searching for tiny grains of gold in huge piles of rocks and dust and pulling heavy bags out of the mine is the only way to make money to achieve his dream and secure his future: going to school. The story of the pursuit of gold, which requires immense courage and effort, is in fact the story of the journey to basic education, a goal that is still difficult for thousands of children to achieve. A captivating and fascinating documentary portrait of a young boy living with optimism in the harshest environment.