Sprengbagger 1010

Engineer Karl Hartmann has designed a monstrous strip mining machine. He initially refuses to build it, instead returning to his old home in the country for rest and recuperation. During a walk in the countryside, he finds a seam of lignite and tells his boss, who immediately makes plans to buy up the land. But two of the landowners resist his offer – Hartmann’s fiancée, a young noblewoman, and his grandmother, who runs a mill that has stood on the land for centuries. Meanwhile, Hartmann moves forward with the construction of his excavator. (Berlinale)