Groenten uit Balen

The Debruycker family, who work at the Vieille Montagne zinc plant in the Belgian town of Balen, are caught inside the strike that breaks out in 1971. The cause is concrete: workers doing the same job at other plants turn out to be paid a great deal more, and the men in Balen want a rise. What follows is a long struggle between the workers, the unions and the board. The film tells it from inside the house rather than from the rally: the money runs out, the evening table shrinks, and the disagreements within the family get as hard as the strike itself. Frank van Mechelen adapted it from Walter van den Broeck’s 1972 play; Van den Broeck wrote the screenplay with Guido Van Meir and appears in the film as one of the strikers. It opened on 14 December 2011. The record gives the running time as 110 minutes where sources say 100.