There is a wonderful village. It's called Rosia Montana. With several hundred- year-old houses. People who stick by their land, house, churches, dead relatives.

The surrounding mountains contain 300 tons of gold and silver. Rosia Montana Gold Corporation, a Canadian-Romanian company wants to open a goldmine here. State-of-the-art technology. Open cast mining. People are being moved into new, modern houses. Their former homes are to be destroyed. 4 mountains are to be blasted away.

There will be gold. There will be silver. This will be a new Eldorado. A remarkable offer. There will also be an 800-hectare cyanide waste reservoir with a 180-meter-high dam. Only this beautiful village, Rosia Montana will disappear from the face of the Earth.

"New Eldorado" (2004), directed by Tibor Kocsis (Hungary)

The mining industry in Romania has historically been a steady source of economic benefit for the region, from the time of the Romans, who first plundered the mountains for gold, to the Hapsburg empire, and later the Communist era when workers were showered with high wages and benefits. But following the revolution of 1989, the state-subsidized industry collapsed – leading to widespread unemployment and poverty in mining villages. Rosia Montana is the oldest documented Romanian location, a 2,000 year-old mining community tucked away in the mountains of Romania.

When the documentary was filmed, the community suffered from a 70 percent unemployment rate. The 300 tons of gold and 1,200 tons of silver would have included some benefits if mining activities resume. The price of gold has nearly doubled over the past ten years: in 2007 (when the project was halted), an ounce of gold was selling for $700 in the world market. On the other hand, the renewal of mining would require the displacement of most of the village. Gold may bring prosperity to Rosia Montana – but a golden future has its price.

Maybe because of the local topic (Rosia Montana was on the verge of becoming a statistic of yet another possible environmental disaster), maybe because one of the persons who fought to save the community and the mountains was present and underlined the social aspect of ecology, this documentary was breathtaking for me. Everybody can generally relate to Age of Stupid or The Story of Stuff, but when you hear your own language in a possible tragedy that happens in your own backyard, you can't refrain some shivers.

Rosia Montana is now a story of "Yes, we can" but Romanians have to thank Stephanie Roth (Swiss journalist) for the leadership and believing in the right cause even when everybody else thought it lost.

Further reading:

• Save Rosia Montana
• Questions and answers with filmmaker Tibor Kocris
• Rosia Montana on Wikipedia
• Interview with Stephanie Roth

The documentary is no longer live anywhere and when I try to load its site I get a virus alert notification, so my advice is not to go there (hence the reason why I haven't linked it anywhere either). I'll try to get more than just a trailer for you in the next couple of days.

L.E. See below a video with Stephanie telling the story of Rosia Montana. It's in Romanian (with bits of English) - if anyone can enlighten me on how I can add subtitles, please do.