At first glance, time seems to have stood still in the Kyrgyz village of Barskon. Nurbek, the main protagonist in the film, has been working for 10 years in the local gold mine known as Kumtor. This is the place where Tomáš Kudrna faithfully documents the peculiar form of capitalism and democracy that prevails in a country that looks like an open-air Soviet museum. We see the petty disputes between the locals and look at the events of 1998, when two tonnes of cyanide leaked into the river from the Kumtor mine and poisoned hundreds of villagers.