Joris Molinas

At the end of the nineteenth century, little Marcel lives with his parents in Aubagne in the Provence countryside. His mother, Augustine, is a dressmaker, his father Joseph a teacher. When Marcel is only three, Joseph and Augustine move to Saint-Loup, in the suburbs of Marseilles. As the years go by and young Marcel begins to grow up, his family expands to include a little brother and a baby sister, and his father receives a promotion to a permanent teaching position in Marseilles! One summer, his father decides that they should spend their holiday in the hills of Provence at a villa which he has rented with Jules, who is married to Augustine's sister Rose. While there, Marcel meets Lili, a local boy who knows all the secrets of the hills, and the two become fast friends.

Longing to return to the hills he grew to love, 11-year-old Marcel finds happiness again when his father is provided access to a footpath they can use to travel from Marseilles to Provence. Years later, Marcel purchases a castle and realizes it is the same estate his mother was terrified to cross along their journey. Based on the memoirs of French novelist, playwright and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol.