Due to the collapse of the traditional energy sector in China, the shutting down of a coal mine in the Fenyang region and the ensuing redundancy of its workers is the starting point for this satire masterfully directed by Jia Zhangke. Three of these workers keep their tight bond and venture into finding a new job, albeit their mature age – at least when compared with their much younger competitors – which makes them face some comical situations and end up accepting one last and only chance. Using daily life as a starting point the film propounds a meditation on the volatility of even the apparently most stable of situations – at a time when China joining the market economy lead to the frailty of the primary sector – and at the same time a meditation on the meaningfulness of the more common movie productions that resort, for example, to the exaggerated use of drones for their shootings or over the top costumes without any concern for historic accuracy. (MM)