In 1852, the mountain village in Provence where Violette lives is brutally deprived of all its men after the repression of the republicans ordered by Napoleon III. Women spend months in total isolation, desperate to see their men again. In this situation, they make an oath in case a man arrives in the village.
Direction
Francen's debut captures female gaze like few male directors dare.
Cinematography
Provence has never looked this simultaneously beautiful and oppressive.
Acting
Pauline Burlet's Violette simmers with unspoken everything.
Director
Marine Francen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Violette Ailhaud's true account of the 1851 coup, when Napoleon III crushed the Second Republic and rural villages lost entire male populations to prison or death.
Francen filmed in an actual abandoned hamlet in Haute-Provence; local women whose ancestors lived through similar histories served as extras, lending the oath scene documentary weight.
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