“Germinal” in an epic film based on the novel by Emily Zola. It is a detailed, sweeping tale of French coal miners and their struggle against their exploitative owners, which resulted in catastrophe and hopelessness.
The story is set in France, in the late 19th century. Emilie Zola, a French writer, decides to travel to a poor district of the country to observe the miner´s working conditions. On this trip, he details the experience that these brave workers had in gaining justice for themselves. Thus, the author shows the miner´s living conditions, that were a little better than slavery.
The film focuses its attention on the daily life of a normal worker´s family. There’s a couple, an older daughter and three small children. They lived together in a smoky crowded house near the mines. Everyday, they carried out the exhausting job of extracting carbon from the mines in order to make a living.
The plot consists of showing this family´s everyday struggle, the workers hazardous conditions until it reaches a point in which the situation is so unstainable that they decided to organize a miner´s union.
Trapped between servitude and slavery, with no hope in life, the movie portrays the picture of what life consisted of in France when socialist ideas started to flourish. Outstanding dialogues, elaborated sets and realistic stories, show the villages in such a convincing light that the movie seems to be shot in real 19th century locations. I would strongly recommend this movie to all history teachers and educators who want to raise awareness about this dark and somber time in history.
VOCABULARY THAT YOU CAN TEACH WITH THIS MOVIE:
Miners, coal, working conditions, poor working conditions, living conditions, injustice, unfairness, slavery, salary, low income, servitude, 19th century ideas, labor union, socialism, capitalism, communism.
GRAMMAR STRUCTURE YOU CAN TEACH WITH THIS MOVIE:
Simple past, past continuous, past perfect.
