"Veteran experimental filmmakers Danielle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub helmed this unusual adaptation of a novel by Elio Vittorini. Focused on the triumphs and failures of a group of laborers and farm hands who pooled their resources to operate an alternative collective farm after the end of World War II, Operai, Contadini features a cast of 12 actors who read aloud from Vittorini's book for the duration of the film, either reciting from memory or using a clearly visible script. Hardly designed to be a crowd pleaser, Operai, Contadini proved to be controversial among the audiences for its showings at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight series." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
　　"The group makes up a primitive community which seeks to erase not only the distress created by the war but also the hardships of life and hunger, and to protect them from violence, misery and fear. Amid the ruins of this post-war period, the characters build and invent a rapport  both in their professional and daily lives  between themselves, the sexes, generations, diverse social and geographical origins, and antagonistic political camps.
　　The group maintains a 'register', a kind of diary, as if it were entering the minutes of an inquiry or a trial." -Steve Grayson
　　"my favorite Straub-Huillet films are Too Early, Too Late and Operai, contadini (2001), both color landscape films with especially acute senses of place as well as of nature in all its harsh beauty." - Jonathan Rosenbaum

　　米歇尔（让·雨果·安格拉德 Jean-Hugues Anglade 饰）是一名心理医生，一天，一个名叫奥佳（伊莲娜·德·芙吉霍尔 Hélène de Fougerolles 饰）的女病人出现在他的面前。奥佳是嫁入豪门的阔太太，却有着偷窃的癖好，并且对于性展现出了自己独特的个人喜好。
　　在治疗奥佳的同时，米歇尔发现自己逐渐的被对方带偏了节奏。米歇尔做了一个奇怪的梦，梦里，他和奥佳享受了一场极致的性爱，当米歇尔醒来之时，却发现自己竟然将奥佳掐死在了诊疗椅上。慌忙之中，米歇尔藏起了奥佳的尸体，之后，奥佳的丈夫和警方接连找上门来打听奥佳的下落，米歇尔的女友也因为男友最近诡异的行踪和态度对他产生了怀疑。