I enjoyed this. It would please those those who fantasise about living the French rural idyll- quite a few people judging by friends who've bought run-down properties across the channel and the plethora of books on the subject.

Sandrine, a female computer expert in Paris (the film starts with her caught in a traffic jam) decides to study agriculture and her mother's home (she's alrady separated from her husband) to buy a goat-farm.

'Those of who who think it's all making goats cheese and playing your guitar, leave now!' says the instructor, warning students of the struggle ahead. The rest of the film is about her life on a remote farm in the idyllic Rhone-Alps region and the relationship she forms with the crusty former owner who has neanderthal beliefs about women and who stays on with her through the first gruelling winter.

There's a bit more to the plot than this - the old guy has a crony who drops by and the woman's husband tries to entice her back, but the main interest is in the details of farming life, what can go wrong with a herd of goats, and the commercial potential of opening a riding school and calling it The Balcony in the Sky.

The leads are well-cast, Sandrine tough enough and the old man credible as a taciturn peasant still grieving for wife.

There's a documentary on the DVD about the director's helicopter search for the right place and some interviews with the locals, delighted by an influx of tourists wanting to see where the film was made.



Sheila