The director was born and brought up in Borinage, the same wretched mining district that was first made famous by Van Gogh's charcoal etchings and then by the monumental documentary "Miseries of Borinage" by Dutch master Joris Ivens and his Flemmish colleague, Henri Storck... In the form of a posthumous letter to Storck, using clippings from the original film, the director paints a personal picture about a corner of Western Europe, where shocking living conditions of those trapped within its boundaries breaks down the myth of 'la dolce vita' like even Agnes Varda with her "The gleaners and I" could not... grim and pity less in its accusation of society at large, this is a documentary made on a nothing budget, with only the directors intimate knowledge of the surroundings as the capital... very good first effort... must see for activists and cinephiles...
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