With restrained anger, Chinese filmmaker Zhao Liang brings us on a staggering journey into a modern-day Dante’s Inferno, the pitch-black mines of Inner Mongolia. Behemoth initially possesses a terrifying, widescreen grandeur, as explosions ravage the land and sheep stream down the newly formed slopes. Then as this mesmerizing movie digs deeper into the flames, the focus shifts to the workers toiling in this merciless profession. We pull up close, studying a miner as she methodically removes soot from her skin. Zhao carefully arranges these scenes into a gripping, disturbing travelogue. “Life’s greatest sorrow,” the narrator notes, “is to live with desire yet without hope.” By the time it’s reached its startling, unforgettable finale, Behemoth has honed its fury into something every bit as powerful as its industrial-age subject. (CB)