_{Some reviews:}

_{Although set in Aalst, Belgium, at the turn of the century, it has many similarities to Dorothy Day. It may be the classic Catholic story, since the hero takes literally not only the gospel but also Pope Leo XIII's then-new 1891 encyclical on social justice, Rerum Novarum. That gets him, of course, in all kinds of trouble inside the Church--with wealthy laymen and politicians, fellow clerics and pragmatic bishops and cardinals. Many of us simply don't know enough social history. The horrors of child labor that now haunt the Third World were then rife in Europe. (The factory directors worked women and children under unbelievable conditions to save money.) Nearly all the arguments that now divide Catholics on social issues raged then, when the Church, always organized to resist change, found itself tested by both atheistic socialism and laissez-faire capitalism.}  

_{Set in late 19th-century Aalst, a grim textile town halfway between Brussels and Ghent, the film contrasts the drab world of the divided, demoralised workers and the elegant homes of their employers. The workers have no unions and no voice in parliament, and the factory owners are proposing to confront a minor recession by looking across the Channel for guidance 'We should do as the English', 'let's follow the Scottish example,' they say. It has a sickening present-day relevance, because what they mean is that wages should be lowered and hours extended, that the male weavers should be sacked and women and children employed in their place.}

_{Into Aalst comes the middle-aged Adolf Daens, a rebellious priest of ferocious intelligence and powerful conscience whose liberal brother edits the local Catholic paper. Defying the Catholic hierachy, the ruling class and the grotesque King Leopold (then ruthlessly exploiting the Congo as his personal domain), Daens fights for improved wages, healthier conditions and universal suffrage. In the face of ecclesiastical opposition and the distrust of the revolutionary Left, he founds the Christian People's Party and is elected to Parliament.}

_{Daens was eventually broken by his opponents, but his achievements were considerable and his example an inspiration. He died in 1907, the year before Oskar Schindler was born, and it is as valuable for audiences to learn about Daens and to be reminded of the early struggles of democratic socialism as it is to encounter Schindler and have the Holocaust kept before us.}  

_{Things to look for:}

_{Do the parties etc. act the way the theories (especially Kalyvas) predict?}

_{Notice the various cleavages (Class, Religious, Language).}

_{Notice how identities are formed and re-enforced (e.g. am I an employee, a worker, a Socialist, and/or a Catholic?).}

_{Who is this Woester guy (Leader of the Catholic party)? Why won't he accommodate the workers?}

_{Was Daens a rational actor? His brother? Woester? The representatives of the church hierarchy?}

_{Why did the Socialists support Daens?}

_{Why didn't the leadership of the Catholic church support Daens?}