After the defeat at Waterloo, a young officer in the imperial army sets out to return to his homeland. But his journey through the Cévennes Mountains is met with hostility from the peasants, who do not hesitate to spill blood. One evening, he decides to stop at a farm, little realizing that this choice will change his destiny.
Like "the bagnard" ,a story of redemption, but much better :probably the best movie in Willy Rozier 's neglected filmography ; this one is a good depiction of the rural life in the Cévennes during "la terreur blanche" (the white terror) at the time of Napoleon's fall and the royalists' come back ; Napoleon's conscription had bled dried the country and it's only natural that an officer meets hostility in the village ; he's a stranger , and there's a highway man who has never been captured; so it's the ideal suspect.
Rozier's directing is more inventive than usual ; all the scenes in the caves lightened by torches are excellent ; the one-legged man and the doctor are interesting characters ; sentimentality kept to economical levels ,and a final scene in the graveyard which avoids melodramatic effects .
