Borinage left Henri Storck profoundly disturbed by injustice and social poverty. When he was offered a chance to make the film he undertook an in-depth survey into the working class and slums and shouldered his camera as a militant filmmaker. In a plot of Walloon slums he staged characters and situations as examples. All shots work on intensity, the filling of the frame, which gives the impression of being unable to breathe, of being trapped, closed in. And in the face of this overflowing misery is the emptiness of the expressions, the absence of emotion. Survival is all. But the message of hope is there, with the destruction of slums (the hovels are demolished as if getting rid of a tyrant) and the construction of garden cities surrounded by trees in bloom and a future of song, leaves one with the impression that man’s dignity has been safeguarded.

Documentário ficcional de 1936 que pretende demonstrar as misérias e os sofrimentos vividos pela classe operária belga. Todas as cenas foram inspiradas em fatos reais e filmadas no ambiente real na qual viviam as pessoas retratadas no filme. A obra foi encomendada pela "Société Nationale des Habitations à Bon Marché" e tem como central o crescimento das favelas e dos cortiços e a consequente desestruturação da vida familiar da classe operária daquele país.