After the execution of French smuggler and folk hero Louis Mandrin, his outlaw companions scour the countryside spreading his revolutionary message. Ameur-Zaïmeche surprised many by following his trilogy of ultra-contemporary films with this period piece set in the eighteenth century, but the triumphant results bear all the hallmarks of his unique way of finding poetry and political resonance in the everyday and infusing fiction with a documentary authenticity. Combining pastoral splendor, ecstatic song, and the fight on the barricades, the director creates a rousing tribute to the rebellious spirit and the age-old battle against injustice.
