A boy called 'The Piglet' trapped in a castle of hate discovers one teacher can rewrite your whole world.
In the 1930s, in a village in Gironde, Guillou, a young boy in need of affection, nicknamed the Sagouin, unhappy and in need of affection, leads a life of anguish and sadness in a sinister castle. He exasperates his mother who sees in him only the hated reflection of a husband she only married to become a baroness. Thanks to the kindness of the village teacher, Guillou glimpses for a moment the existence of another world, of gentleness and tenderness.
Acting
Gilles Laurent's heartbreaking stillness as Guillou—never begs for pity.
Direction
Moati shoots the castle like a suffocating coffin of stone and shadow.
Cinematography
Gironde landscapes that should be beautiful but feel haunted.
Director
Serge Moati
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on François Mauriac's novel, this adapts the Catholic author's obsession with provincial sin and grace. Moati was primarily a TV documentarian—his only fiction feature carries that unflinching observational eye.
Marie-Christine Barrault reportedly struggled with Léone's viciousness; her performance crackles with a mother's own self-loathing projected onto her 'tainted' son.
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