Synopsis
Germinal (2021) is a French drama series you can watch online on iFILM, directed by David Hourrègue and adapted from Émile Zola's 1885 novel of the same name. Louis Peres plays Étienne Lantier, a jobless mechanic who takes work in the coal mines of Montsou in northern France.
He arrives with no particular plan. What he finds is the Maheu family — every member old enough to hold a pick is underground before dawn, earning wages that don't cover the company store — and their daughter Catherine, played by Rose-Marie Perreault. Étienne starts passing socialist pamphlets between shifts. A strike moves from fantasy to question to organising meeting.
Zola wrote Germinal as part of the twenty-novel Rougon-Macquart cycle and published it in 1885; it remains one of the most-read works of labour fiction in the French literary tradition. This 2021 adaptation arrives thirty years after Claude Berri's film with Gérard Depardieu, with Thierry Godard (Engrenages) and Sami Bouajila in key roles. The story hasn't dimmed. Stream Germinal online on iFILM.
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