As she cuts across the fields to take her father his lunch, Patricia meets Jacques. She is 18, he is 26. She is pretty, with the fine manners of a young lady; he is a fighter pilot and a handsome young man. A full moon will do the rest on their second meeting. There wont be a third rendezvous as Jacques is sent to the front. Meanwhile, Patricia finds herself pregnant and the boy's rich parents accuse her of blackmail. Patricia and her father, the well-digger, will alone have the joy of welcoming her child. A joy that the Mazels will soon envy and seek to share when Jacques goes missing in auction

Daniel Auteuil made the jump from in front of the camera to behind it with The Well Digger's Daughter, choosing to adapt Marcel Pagnol's story for the big screen. Pagnol also penned the source material to Jean De Florette and Manon Des Sources, two of the most acclaimed and popular French films of the past few decades. And while The Well Digger's Daughter doesn't sit side by side with them, it's still a commendable piece of cinema.

Unashamedly old fashioned in its style, The Well Digger's Daughter is set around World War II, with Auteuil himself playing the well digger of the film's title. One of his daughters, meanwhile, is Patricia, and its she who begins a short relationship with the son of a wealthy family. He soon disappears, she discovers that she's pregnant, and from there, the film's core drama ensues.