Houses of Poverty

Borinage left Henri Storck profoundly disturbed by injustice and social poverty When he was offered a chance to make the film he undertook an indepth 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 mans dignity has been safeguarded