United States

Victor Hugo's classic work highlighting the inevitable triumph of good over evil is set in the French town of Faverolles in 1796 a typical Republic in those turbulent times; the poor get poorer, the rich richer. Punishment for even minor crimes is harsh; then Jean Valjean a handsome, young woodcutter steals a loaf to feed his starving sister and her baby he is sentenced to five years at the galley. Valjean makes frequent attempts to escape the squalid, rat-infested gaol but each time is recaptured and sentenced to further harsh terms by the sinister Inspector Javert who seems to take a sadistic pleasure in punishing the ragged, bearded long haired figure before him. Valjean risks his life to pull to safety a prisoner tangled in a hoist on a castle wall high above a river. Valiean himself falls from the rope into the river beneath. Prisoners and guards are convinced he is dead; Javert is not so sure...