Germinal

1866. Young mechanic Étienne Lantier arrives in the mining town of Mons in search of work – and finds himself among people living literally in hell, where the only escape from abject poverty and hard labor is drunkenness and dull, hopeless debauchery. But people – especially miners who are used to risk their lives every day – cannot be oppressed indefinitely. And one day, driven to the brink of losing their instinct for self-preservation, they fiercely rise up to fight for a better fate...