This is the only theatrically released movie by Jean Canolle,who essentially worked for the TV.
It is a moderately pleasant comedy,filmed on location in Corsica ;wide screen and color do the splendid landscapes justice and there's a lovely score too.
Maddalena's donkey has disappeared and it causes local politics problem in her village of Zingaria;when the animal is found again,it is also claimed by another person ,a bailiff from the village of Sainte- Marie .As the two villages cannot stand the sight of each other,it just makes matters worse .It will take a trial to solve the case .
With two exceptions,the actors are unknown,even for a French early seventies audience .Jean Lefèvre finds here one of his least mediocre part as the road-man who stutters ,except when he speaks to the donkey;he even speaks to Saint Sebastian,imitating Fernandel's Don Camillo with consummate skill. Tino Rossi is the guest star - and it would be his final film-but his song and his scene in Paris with a man from the government are mostly filler,as is the interminable elopement of a Romeo from Sainte -Marie and a Juliet from Zingaria.
Although the movie loses steam in its last third ,there are lots of things happening ,a stormy town council ,a turbulent populace before the court, a priest and his bishop,and a vet under pressure .
