1938: On the Contadour plateau, Jean Giono’s home region, near Manosque, in the south of France, a film crew is shooting a short called Solitude. Aurélien, a young man from Marseille, is part of the crew. Clovis, a farmer’s son, has just hanged himself. Panic. But Aurélien stays calm. He pulls on the hanged man’s tongue, as he was taught to do in his evening classes. The suicidal young man wakes up. He’s saved. This is how we get to know Saccomano’s hero. Brave and quick-witted. But the show must go on, with Giono directing. Which doesn’t keep the idealistic crew members from their conversation: what does the threatening-seeming future have in store for them? A pretty, dark-haired young woman shows up. Pauline. Aurélien is immediately taken. You get a feeling of love at first sight. More or less adopted by Clovis’s parents, at first she has an aura of distance and mystery. Back in Marseille, the atmosphere is unlike the free, open spaces on the plateaus. The city is crawling with all sorts of vice. Whores and gangsters rule. At the top of the corruption pyramid are the tough-guy bosses, like Bardone, the brothel boss, who dabbles in dope-dealing, too. Aurélien finds the nerve to ask him for help: Spanish Republican anti-fascist fighters need weapons. For a price, Bardone, is willing to help... The setting, era and characters all let Saccomano use his knowledge of his home town’s underground history. He brings it back to life with panache, plus a pinch of love and thrills, too. And the pace is quick, like a gangster’s car barreling down dark roads.