In Northern India lies a barren coast where monstrous ships come to die. Equipped with only the simplest of tools, workers at the Alang-Sosiya shipbreaking yards in Gujarat beat and burn away the once-unbreakable vessels as, joint by joint, bolt by bolt, the iron bodies are disassembled. The struggle of man against steel plays out in rhythmic, wordless detail against this surreal backdrop, the workers appearing as figures rather than characters, as if to accentuate the disparity between the vulnerability of the human form and the impregnability of manmade tanks.  ST