Guber - Arbeit im Stein

Guber, the last stone quarry north of the Alps which produces paving stones, is situated approximately 1000 meters above Alpnach Dorf in the Swiss canton of Obwalden. The huge boulders which are blasted out of the rock are split into portable blocks with a pneumatic hammer and then divided into paving stones of different sizes. This last process is carried out without the use of machines, with hammers and chisels. This exceptionally hard work used to be carried out almost exclusively by Italians and whole families spent their lives in Guber. Many of them, now grown old, were born here, speak the local dialect and live in the colonies built specially for the quarry. Today most of the men are seasonal workers from Portugal who are attracted by the relatively high wages.
The film shows the hard physical labour which has become foreign to the native Swiss. In images rather than words it traces the lives of workers in a country which is foreign to them.