The Well Digger’s Daughter

Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Nicolas Duvauchelle

Directed and written by: Daniel Auteuil

Parental guidance: Mature theme

Running time: 107 minutes

Rating: 3½ stars out of 5

(In French with English subtitles)

There’s a quality to the countryside of southern France — the pure yellows of the sunlight, perhaps, or the easy red poppies blowing in fields of long grasses — that evokes a feeling of richness. It’s not necessarily a place of joie de vivre, but there’s a calming mood of savoir-faire: here is a place in which the people, the landscape, the food, not to mention the faded floral wallpaper, are at least coherent.