User Reviews

In a remote mountain region of picturesque Southern France, babies will be produced in a unique way in the tiny community. "The Sower" (Le semeur) is a film about special deliveries.

In 1848, there was widespread revolutionary fervor throughout Europe. In France, things began to settle down with the rise to power of Napoleon's nephew, Louis-Napoleon. The setting of the film is 1851, when a small military cadre arrives in town to remove all of the men from the tiny mountain village. They were Republicans and perceived as a threat to what would become the Second Empire.

The women of the town are forced to fend for themselves for two years, completing a harvest and eking out a living. Concerned about their survival and even the continuation of the human race, the women make a pact that if any man were to arrive in the town, all of the womenfolk would sleep with him for the purpose of procreation.

The wanderer named Jean arrives in town. Violette is the first woman to sleep with him, and the couple clearly fall deeply in love. The reluctant Jean than agrees to service other women of the community until one of the arrested men returns home after a stint in prison in Algeria. The game is now up, and Jean must leave behind his pregnant paramour and the love of his life.

The film played like a novel of Zola with a grimly determined group of survivors willing to stop at nothing to preserve their community. The scenery was breathtaking, and the performances were superb. The film was a heart-breaker, especially for Violette. But the birth of the baby at the end is at least a small consolation for her efforts in doing her duty.

"Le semeur" is a French/Belgian movie of course in the French language that premiered in 2017 already and well now it is 2019, so this award-winning film took really long to get here to Germany although we are not that far away from the country where it was produced. Film runs for slightly under 100 minutes and it is the first full feature movie by writer and director Marine Francen or Marine Franssen as she is also written alternatively. By the way, the international title is "The Sower", a literal translation of the French title and that one is much better than the German title, which basically means something along the lines of "The Girl Who Could Read" and yeah it is mentioned that she is the only one in her village, except her father, who can read and that this connects her and the man who appears, bt never felt like a crucial part of the story, not even at the end when there is another reference him writing her that he will contact her again knowing she'd understand and it is somehow their only means of private communication because nobody else can read these letters and the big counterpart to how she had to share him with everybody else that he was not just hers the way she wanted him to be. Okay I dug deep into the story already now, so let me return a bit to the basics here. Film is set several centuries back in the past and historic events play a role in this movie, but it is never a history film. We find out right at the very beginning how all the men of a village are arrested in tumultous times that result in the return of an emperor. But I don't want to go too much into detail about that as it is really just the setting, not the core of the story.

Instead it is more about the relationships between the characters. The remaining women of the village agree that if a new man appears, he shall be shared between them, so that all the younger women can get pregnant and repopulize the village if you wantg to call it that. And of course, there is also the pleasure of sex, even if it is hardly mentioned, but many still thought about it and probably hoped they would not get pregnant too quickly, so they can enjoy the pleasure a bit longer. And then of course a man appears, but things are in terms of action other than words again much different and conflicts arise that the women would probably not have expected, but we the audience did. Jealousy is just one aspect, but love is another that you don't want to share the one you love. Or that the man eventually has to agree to stop becoming a fugitive again and also because the one he loves is also in the village and agreeing to be the one mentioned in the title is the only way to stay near her. That's why I found his departure and final letter also slightly surprising to be honest, even if it is far from an eternal farewell. He cares about his child, he says maybe they will see each other again, he will write her again etc. Now for the film in general, what else can I say? It is prettgy good visually too, in terms of costumes, sets and cinematography and how it takes us back all these long long years. For me personally as a straight heterosexual male, it also helps how stunning the protagonist was honestly and yes she is more in the center of the story than him I think because we don't find out really what happened to the man before or after he spends time at the village. So Pauline Burlet is mesmerizing for sure, also a good actress and we can expect more quality work from her in the future. Reminded me a bit of a mix between Emily Blunt and Marion Cotillard in her younger years. So you could say she looks a bit French. Some of her character's most memorable moments were when she lies to the other women tright away about how she did not ask him about the other men (admittedly to protect them and he did not know anything certain) and also how she says he wants to be with her for a few more days before sharing. There was another fairly attractive female actress, but I don't remember her name right now, I mean the one who is opposed to the idea of sharing the man initially right away which shows that in her head she is already more grown-up than some of the characters almost twice her age. Gonna check for the name in an instant. But sadly, that is her only somewhat memorable moment. This was a bit if a problem as there were so many female characters that had screen time, but hardly any of them really played a crucial role in the film other than the ensemble tendency that everybody was lusting for the man. But that is just one criticism honestly and even if there are a few others, I easily believe the good outweighs the weak here and I certainly recommend checking this movie out. A bit of a pity for me here that it was only shown as a dubbed German version and as somebody who really adores the French language I'd have preferred the original of course, but maybe that could be a good choice for a rewatch then at some point. All in all a thumbs-up for "Le semeur", a decent French period piece that never reaches greatness in terms of any production value, but also does not have any real weaknesses at all. Go see it.