Circa 1963,Julien Duvivier wanted to transfer to the screen "les déserteurs" from Georges Bayle 's novel which dealt with a similar subject resumed by Georges Dumoulin in his film ; Duvivier's film took place in a farm in the dead of winter in three days ;a detailed script was published in Eric Bonnefille's "Duvivier,le mal-aimant du cinema français ,tome 2'and it promised great things ;sadly the plan died on the vine.
Charles Dumoulin registered the same desire : four German deserters join the maquis where resistant fighters hide in the woods :hence the title, based on an old French folk song children would often sing in a ring in the past; today ,it's old-fashioned.
It is par excellence the low-budget movie ,which does not rule it out ; although the screenplay shows respect for the public (the German speaks their first language ,fortunately one of them speaks French), the deserters /maquisards relationship is not fully exploited -only the first sequences deal with it,then it descends towards the banality of the impossible love between one of the deserters and a female resistant fighter (the talented Marie-France Pisier )
A missed opportunity.
