Aalst, late nineteenth century. Priest Adolf Daens returns to his hometown, a city plagued by social inequality, child labor, low wages, and appalling working conditions in the textile industry. Driven by his sense of justice, Daens sides with the workers, even though this puts him at odds with the conservative church, the affluent bourgeoisie, and even his bishop. When he denounces these abuses from the pulpit, he incurs the wrath of factory owners and church authorities. Daens goes on to found the Christian People's Party, is elected to parliament, and brings the rights of ordinary people on the political agenda, leading to far-reaching consequences for the city, the church, and his own vocation as a priest. This powerful film was the first Flemish movie ever nominated for an Oscar. It offers a richly detailed historical fresco of the fight for justice and the sacrifices it demands.
“The balanced script ensures that the serious problems are regularly offset by the powerful illustrative anecdotes. The acting too is of the highest quality. Apart from Jan Decleir as Father Daens, there is a revelation in the form of Antje De Boeck, who plays a girl from a poor family torn by social conflicts. A special role was reserved for an excellent Julien Schoenaerts as Bishop Stillemans. This emotional piece of history was a real box-office success. The film was honoured with the title Flemish Cultural Ambassador and was the first Flemish feature film to be nominated for an Oscar. To cap it all, Stijn Coninx was rewarded in the honours list.”
Rik Stallaerts / Belgian Cinema
“The film’s screenwriters ensured that Daens featured the essence of [Louis Paul] Boon’s novel: namely, the description of an atmosphere and a period where the social and political divisions were very strong. And in order to best render this environment, it was indispensable to find sites that best evoked the nineteenth century. The film was thus shot in Poland, one of the only remaining countries in the late 1990s where wool was still being spun traditionally in the style of the late nineteenth century. The Polish locations were magnified by the cinematography of Walther van den Ende, who, with his Flemish-painting-inspired chiaroscuros, achieves an ideal reconstruction of a Belgium of another time.”
Nicolas Thys / Directory of World Cinema: Belgium
“The film’s credit sequence is impressive in this respect: around the main actors, no less than four thousand extras were gathered. All the while avoiding the clichés of melodrama, Coninx adds a love story to the film, endowing it with a romantic, epic dimension.”
Nicolas Thys / Directory of World Cinema: Belgium
“From the very beginning of the title sequence, you know this film is about the Past with a large 'P’. A dark satanic mill is shown in gloomy black and white; child workers scramble about picking up the bits of cotton which fall from vast noisy looms. Outside, more children clamber over slag heaps to find coal to take home to their families. This may be nineteenth-century Flanders, but these are images of Europe’s common industrial history.”
Martin Bright / Sight and Sound
