{"id":71990,"date":"2025-11-25T09:07:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.krakowfilmfestival.pl\/?p=71990"},"modified":"2025-11-26T09:16:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T08:16:49","slug":"silver-mroczna-kolebka-kapitalizmu-w-wizualnym-arcydziele-zobacz-rozmowe-z-natalia-koniarz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.krakowfilmfestival.pl\/en\/silver-mroczna-kolebka-kapitalizmu-w-wizualnym-arcydziele-zobacz-rozmowe-z-natalia-koniarz\/","title":{"rendered":"“Silver”: The Dark Cradle of Capitalism in a Visual Masterpiece. Watch the Conversation with Natalia Koniarz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is not merely a film about miners. It is a story about the place where modern global trade and globalization were born. The multi-award-winning documentary “Silver,” directed by Natalia Koniarz, is cinema that delights with maturity, hypnotizes with the cinematography of Stanis\u0142aw Cuske, and moves the audience with the creators’ extraordinary empathy. The film is now available in cinemas \u2013 it is a picture that demands to be seen on the big screen.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We encourage you to watch the fascinating conversation with the director in the “Culture for the Weekend” (Kultura na Weekend) series by Polityka weekly (watch video below<\/a>). Editor Janusz Wr\u00f3blewski speaks with Natalia Koniarz about the behind-the-scenes of the production, professional risk, and the ethics of a documentarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although “Silver”<\/a> focuses on the fates of specific individuals, a grand, often forgotten history pulses in the background. Bolivian Potosi is a place both magical and tragic. As noted in the interview, this is where the heart of the modern economy beats. In the 16th century, Potosi was one of the largest cities in the world and the “cradle of global capitalism.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potos\u00ed: The Mountain That Created the Global Market<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At one point, up to 80 percent of the world’s silver came from the interior of the Cerro Rico mountain<\/strong>. It was there that the famous “pieces of eight” were minted \u2013 silver coins that became the first currency accepted virtually worldwide. This was the beginning of globalization as we know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The price of this wealth, however, was terrifying. The interview cites a harrowing metaphor illustrating the scale of exploitation upon which Europe’s power was founded:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver these few centuries of exploitation, as many as 8 million people died. Such a quantity of silver was extracted that it would be enough to build a bridge connecting Bolivia with the Iberian Peninsula. And the same amount of bones of people who died during the extraction of these deposits could be laid into such a huge, gigantic bridge.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watch the full interview between Janusz Wr\u00f3blewski and Natalia Koniarz below. <\/strong>You can enable automatically generated English subtitles on YouTube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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