Germinal

“Who needs God and Heaven? We can change this lousy world.”

In the coal country of northern France in the mid-1800s, the Maheu family goes down into the pits each day for wages too low to live on. Étienne Lantier (Renaud) arrives looking for work and lodges with them, among Catherine (Judith Henry) and La Maheude (Miou-Miou). Claude Berri shows a strike as a matter of hunger, with the miners holding out while the owners can wait.