In the 1920s, the Provence is a magnet for immigrants seeking work in the quarries or in the agriculture. Many mingle with locals and settle down permanently —like Toni, an Italian who has moved in with Marie, a Frenchwoman.

A prescient forerunner to the moods and methods of Italian neorealism, Jean Renoir’s lyrical look at immigration captures the brewing passions—and poetic tragedies—of peasant life in a southern French town. And who assisted him? None other than a young Luchino Visconti!