The first attempt at a Czech social film. For their story of a clash between a group of miners in Ostrava and the owners of the mine, the filmmakers were loosely inspired by Émile Zola’s Germinal. They also placed the poems of Petr Bezruč into the intertitles. The film was shot with the participation of real miners, who appeared in various episodes and crowd scenes. After being banned by the censors on 8 October 1921, it was re-edited and finally shown on 17 February 1922. In 1944, producer Zdeněk Vilím ordered a lab technician to destroy the film’s negative out of fear of the Gestapo. After initially being considered lost, a copy was later found, which the National Film Archive used for its restoration.