Gérard Bellocq

This bitter and ironic satire illustrates the universal problems with youth and their revolt against the bourgeois establishment. The man becomes a symbolic victim of what he is protesting and resigns himself to a gloomy future with bleak prospects for humankind. This directorial debut for Jean Pierre Lajournade was well received at the 1970 Mannheim Film Festival.

In the autumn of '43, Mina, a little girl of Jewish origin, is entrusted to farmers in the Cévennes. Shocked by Jeroboam's frustrated manners and Deborah's cruel reflections - who is still suffering two centuries later from the struggle between Protestants and Catholics - Mina thinks she'll find refuge with Jeannot. But the young boy doesn't like girls and mistreats Mina. Fortunately, she has a friend: the village pastor. Thanks to him, she can go to school. Despite their constant bickering, Mina takes a liking to Jeannot. She convinces him to come to school with her. Together, they go for walks or take advantage of the passage of maquisards to force open the cellar door where hams hang! The arrival of an "informer" at the little school and encounters with the Germans disturb Jeannot.