She killed to survive. Now she must marry a stranger or break another woman's heart. Choose.
Paris, 1865. In a music-hall Manon accidentally kills her partner who was trying take sexual advantage of her. She is condemned to twenty years of hard labor first and then to be deported to marry a released convict. On the ship where she sails with her female fellow-sufferers she gets to know a young doctor and helps to suppress a revolt. Once arrived at her destination, Manon hesitates between her official fiancé and the doctor whose household she does not want to break...
Acting
Viviane Romance smolders through impossible choices.
Production
1945 reconstruction of 1865 penal colonies feels hauntingly real.
Director
Léon Mathot
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
France's bagne system deported 90,000+ to penal colonies; this rare fictional depiction came right after Liberation when national reckoning began.
Viviane Romance was France's highest-paid actress in 1945; she fought to make Manon morally ambiguous rather than virtuous victim.
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