Love and hate, a disconnected and estranged father and son, and an overarching fight for what’s right in a mining town all interconnect in the transformative feature that is Digger.

Following stubborn, world-weary Nikitas, the man holds tough and tight to his humble home, animals and business, even as the nearby mining company sloughs sludge from the mountain onto his property with alarming routine.

He’s fighting friends, former allies and big corporate giants to keep his home, even as the powers that be offer him big money to pack up and go. He’s impeding their plans, and he stands alone against a titan of industry.

Complicating his life, the son his ex-wife took away from his desolate little home as a child comes back, demanding half of all Nikitas’ assets, which his mother claimed are rightfully hers after her passing.

The problem, according to Nikitas, is he has nothing to give Johnny, now a motorcycle-riding, hard-edged young man who fails to see his father’s own stubbornness in himself.

As their lives intertwine and cause each other chaos, the way they’re living threatens to be their downfall.

Writer-director Georgis Grigorakis creates a visually stunning, poetic piece of filmmaking with stalwart performances from leads Vangelis Mourikis and Argryis Pandazaras.

It’s got a tough exterior, but if you let yourself get wrapped up in Digger, you’ll find yourself embracing it’s surprisingly resonant core.

4/5 Stars