The Sower

The Sower is a 2017 France-Belgium co-production written and directed by Marine Francen and based on the short story L'homme semence by Violette Ailhaud. Set in 1851, The Sower takes place in a village where the women have been left on their own after all the men were rounded up in order to prevent an uprising. The film premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2017 and was released in the U.S. in 2019. Plot During the French coup d'état of 1851, all the adult men of a small rural village are rounded up, leaving the women behind to fend for themselves. After months pass with no word from the men, the women believe they are dead and become concerned that no men at all have passed through the village. The younger women make a pact that if a man should come through, they will share him equally so that they might have children. They further pledge to only sleep with the man if he agrees to sleep with all of them. In the summer a blacksmith, Jean, arrives looking for work. The women give him shelter, at first tentatively, not willing to admit that they are alone. However Violette, the young woman chosen to look after him, admits that all the men have been arrested and learns in return that Napoleon has declared himself emperor, and that all the prisoners have either died or been deported. Violette asks Jean not to tell the other women. Jean decides to stay to help the women with the harvest. He seems to show a preference for Violette, and the other women who have made the pact with her urge Violette to seduce Jean so that he will stay.