About the film

Opio, a 13-year-old boy, has worked in a gold mine in Burkina Faso for several years. Tirelessly searching for gold in vast piles of rocks and dust seems to be the only way to earn money to achieve his dream: to go to school.

Day and night, smashing rocks, hauling heavy sacks from the mine, and mixing gravel with water in the hope that this time he’ll find a piece of gold big enough to pay his school fees. This is how little Opie spends his days after he realizes that his father cannot help him with money. Opio is still too young to descend to the bottom of the deep, dark pit from which adult miners extract gold – and sometimes dead bodies. But the much-coveted earnings are probably hiding right there. The story of the hunt for gold, which requires immense courage and the exertion of all one’s strength, is, in fact, the story of a journey towards basic education, a goal that remains difficult for thousands of children to achieve.