The Lower Depths

The Lower Depths

Year: 1937

Runtime: 90 mins

Language: Spanish

Director: Pedro Puche

DramaCrime

A melodrama telling the story of Ricardo, a young bourgeois who flees from justice for a crime of passion. It was made during the Spanish Civil War.

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline & Setting – The Lower Depths (1937)

Explore the full timeline and setting of The Lower Depths (1937). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Late 19th — Early 20th century

The events take place in a period of rapid urban migration and social stratification in a Russian city, just before or around the turn of the century. Wealth returns as a baron loses everything to gambling, and the lower depths fight for dignity amid poverty. The era's informal justice and smoky, crowded spaces shape the community's mood and actions.

Location

Riverbank Slums, City

The setting centers on crowded, decaying slums along a river in a large Russian city. Makeshift dwellings, street life and communal spaces fill the quarters where the baron lodges and neighbors clash over money, pride and survival. The neighborhood is tight-knit yet brutal, filled with card games, gossip, and volatile tempers that flare into violence.

🏚️ Slums 🗺️ City Setting 🌊 Riverbank

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 19:09

Main Characters – The Lower Depths (1937)

Meet the key characters of The Lower Depths (1937), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Pépel (Gabin)

A small-time thief who clings to opportunistic loyalties and romantic feelings for Natasha. His presence destabilizes the baron’s precarious new life, yet he also catalyzes moments of solidarity among the lodgers. His arc moves from street-smart schemer to a perilous entanglement with the law and love.

🗝️ Anti-hero 💘 Lover 🧭 Loyalties

The Baron

A wealthy landowner driven to bankruptcy by gambling, who ends up as a lodger in the slums. He embodies the collapse of status and the possibility of grace among the downtrodden. His quiet, humane curiosity clashes with a world of vice and desperation.

💼 Displaced Aristocrat 🌀 Out of Place

Natasha

Kostylev’s wife's sister, caught between aspiration and reality. She captivates the inspector and then turns toward love with Pépel, illustrating the pull between a better life and the dangers of street life.

💃 Romantic 🎭 Tempted by Liberty

Vassilissa

A neighbor who becomes morally pressing—urging Natasha toward a better life while jealously guarding her own heartbreak. She participates in confrontations that reveal how fear, desire, and resentment fuel the neighborhood’s violence.

🌛 Jealousy 🗡️ Instigator of Arguably Moral Choices

Kostylev

The slum landlord whose oppression is felt by all the lodgers. His murder becomes a communal moment of reckoning, showing how oppression can provoke collective violence and moral ambiguity.

🏠 Oppressor 👊 Catalyst of Violence

Inspector

A police figure who represents order and potential reform, yet who is entangled in the neighborhood’s moral economy. He courts Natasha, highlighting the allure of a better life that remains elusive for many slum residents.

🕵️ Authority 💖 Illusion of Escape

The Actor

The eccentric, doomed resident who embodies the slum’s volatility and existential despair. His suicide in the epilogue punctuates the film’s somber meditation on hopelessness and fate.

🎭 Eccentric 🕯️ Tragic Figure

Félix

The baron’s loyal servant who embodies the baron’s betrayal of his own wages and the servant-class’s precarious position. He is a quiet, undercurrent presence in the baron’s story.

🧰 Loyal Servant 💬 Silent Witness

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 19:09

Major Themes – The Lower Depths (1937)

Explore the central themes of The Lower Depths (1937), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

💰 Class Divide

Wealth and poverty sit side by side as the baron's bankruptcy drives him from opulence into the slums. The film contrasts creditors, landowners, and beguiled residents, using intimate vignettes to show how social status dictates access to safety, shelter, and respect. The interactions reveal how the lower depths navigate power, aspiration, and humiliation.

🤝 Solidarity

Despite rivalry and danger, the slum inhabitants form fragile bonds that help each other survive. Pépel's alliance with the baron and the lodgers' collective defense during the landlord’s assault illustrate a communal instinct to resist exploitation. The characters’ complicity and care for Natasha highlight the human need for connection in hardship.

🕯️ Morality

Moral lines blur as crime, loyalty, and love intersect. The baron defends a thief, the inspector pursues justice, and Natasha chooses between safety and affection, while the neighborhood celebrates or condemns acts in morally ambiguous ways. The ending underscores a grim view of justice, where guilt lingers and “the lower depths” bear responsibility collectively.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 19:09

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The Lower Depths Summary

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The Lower Depths Summary

The Lower Depths Timeline

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The Lower Depths Timeline

More About The Lower Depths

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