In a rural French village, an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, and are dismayed to hear that the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts, they think only of getting the water.
The film moves calmly, with plenty of room for landscape, heat and silence, and that very pace makes the story so oppressive. The Provençal sun looks beautiful and merciless at once. Gérard Depardieu plays a man whose hope you watch fade scene by scene, while Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil pursue their plans coolly and without hurry.
Good for you if you like quiet, literary dramas about greed, neighbours and rural life and do not need a fast pace.
Written with AI, based on TMDb data.