AllMovie

A starving community faces a grim future while struggling to discern whether it will be community gardening or the coming railroad that will deliver them from famine in this rural drama from director Luc Picard (L'Audition, Babine). It's springtime in Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, and there isn't enough food for all of the villages to survive. Convinced that the soil is all they need to become self-sufficient, Ésimésac convinces his neighbors to plan a garden, and plant the seeds of their future. Meanwhile, rumors of a proposed railway that would run through Saint-Élie-de-Caxton give local blacksmith Riopel a plan to profit by manufacturing the tracks that would connect the hamlet to the big cities, bringing in food by the box-car. With their food supply dwindling, the villagers who once supported Ésimésac's plan begin to believe in Riopel. Now, as the tracks are laid, Ésimésac watches on as gears of progress slowly begin to turn.