Quite a charming little film! Personally, I liked the village & the eccentric characters much more than the actual story. Right from the first scene we realize that the story is set in a village with picturesque surroundings. Then come the residents & all of them are quirky in an endearing way. Most people have been living in the village for generations and sometimes the family feuds go such a long way back that no one remembers how they started. And the logic for maintaining the enmity is simple, "If the feud has lasted for so long, it must've been about something important!" The schoolmaster chastises such reasoning & calls people silly. However, in a little while we witness an argument between him & the pastor (the two so-called learned people of the community) and then those two also seem silly! We also see a fight between 2 farmers regarding the position of trees & gardens! One of the farmers gets so heated up that he even tells his friend that the latter should spit on the former's face should he ever speak to the other farmer!
Besides the obvious things that this funny little community lacks, what they need almost desperately is freshly baked bread. In comes a middle-aged baker (very expertly played by Raimu) with his young wife. What's more is that he's a good baker & the people are ecstatic to get good bread for which they sometimes had to travel for miles in the past.
However, the respite to the villagers is too brief because the next day, the baker's young wife runs away with a handsome shepherd. The baker is heart-broken and can't bake anymore. Now, the cuckoldry is no longer a laughing matter for the villagers! So, they forget their animosity and form a ragtag army to search for the baker's wife. The shepherd runs away when he realizes that they've been discovered and the errant wife is returned to her loving husband.
More than the storyline, it's the village & the residents that steal the show. The characters play off each other very well and you feel like a part of this weird little community. The whole thing has a rustic, old world charm. Not to be missed!
Besides the obvious things that this funny little community lacks, what they need almost desperately is freshly baked bread. In comes a middle-aged baker (very expertly played by Raimu) with his young wife. What's more is that he's a good baker & the people are ecstatic to get good bread for which they sometimes had to travel for miles in the past.
However, the respite to the villagers is too brief because the next day, the baker's young wife runs away with a handsome shepherd. The baker is heart-broken and can't bake anymore. Now, the cuckoldry is no longer a laughing matter for the villagers! So, they forget their animosity and form a ragtag army to search for the baker's wife. The shepherd runs away when he realizes that they've been discovered and the errant wife is returned to her loving husband.
More than the storyline, it's the village & the residents that steal the show. The characters play off each other very well and you feel like a part of this weird little community. The whole thing has a rustic, old world charm. Not to be missed!