Carrying more than 1,000 tonnes of metal, a freight train heads down the Peruvian Central Railway, a route that stretches from the Andean city of Cerro de Pasco, one of the highest in the world, to the Port of Callao on the Pacific coast. Structured around this journey, Manuel Bauer’s documentary debut weaves a vivid tapestry of experiences that captures the complex sociopolitical fabric of contemporary Peru.

Dominating these intimate anecdotes, which are spread across regions, is the influence of the mining industry. Manuel, a middle-aged native of Cerro de Pasco, speaks of how his friends and relatives have either died of lead poisoning or chosen to migrate to other towns. Health concerns trouble not only the older population of Peru, but also the children who grow up amid contamination. Here disease and early death are more than facts of life: they emerge as a disturbing kind of intergenerational inheritance.

The country’s dependence on mining stifles the possibilities of alternative career paths. There is talk of artistic aspirations and dreams of playing football, but these have been extinguished by a lack of financial support. As Bauer’s film unfolds over a week-long celebration of Peru’s independence day, such laments are juxtaposed with radio broadcasts and parades, activities that mark the nation’s liberation from Spanish rule.

Any jubilance, however, is undercut with a sense of discontent. When the film alights at the Port of Callao, one of the dock workers bemoans Peru’s lack of manufacturing industry, which leads the country to export its natural resources on the cheap. By examining this form of ongoing economic colonialism, Steel Life profoundly exposes another dimension to Peru’s history of imperial colonialismion.

• Steel Life is available from 29 December on True Story.