Yan, who has just been acquitted of a crime he has not committed, returns to his Flemish village, where he meets hostility, particularly from Franz, the garage owner. Fortunately, Gus, his childhood friend refuses to follow the pack and talks his mother, the richest person in the area, into getting him a job. But Yan is soon drawn to Maria, the sultry girl Gus lives with.

Athanase Pernath is a gem cutter in the Prague ghetto. In spite of himself, he becomes embroiled in the lives of his neighbors. Family feuds, swindles, jealousies and revenge lead Pernath to prison, while the threat of the Golem, a monster created by a rabbi and awakening every thirty-three years, hangs over the city.

Two babies are switched at birth. When the mistake is discovered 12 years later, it leads to complications in the lives of both families. One family is affluent, with dutiful and (apparently) contented children. The other family is poor, with rambunctious (even delinquent) children, often hungry, but with lots of laughter in the house.

1974 film by Just Jaeckin

1959 film by Robert Bresson