La Société des Films Charles Dullin

Maldone is a canal worker, happy with his life after running away from his family estate. He falls in love with Zita, a young gypsy girl, during a local fete. However, after his brother dies, Maldone is called back to manage the estate. There, he takes up the life of a landowner and marries a neighbor's daughter. Years later Maldone is still restless on the estate, and becomes obsessed with Zita, after meeting her by chance one evening.

In 1928, Georges Lacombe, then assistant to René Clair, filmed the ragpickers who lived in the "zone". As his camera was stationary, he took particular care over the framing and he offers the viewer a document that is imbued with both realism and poetry. We even see the once-famous cancan dancer "La Goulue", sunk into poverty at the end of her life. - MHEU