This movie is the cinematographic transposition of a beautiful autobiographic work: British writer (and historian) Gerald Brenan wrote a very sincere piece about his six years in the Alpujarras and everything shown in the picture is true, including people's names or the birth of his Spanish daughter Miranda Helen.

The film, which is very nice, focuses on Brenan's story and doesn't show a great deal of the Alpujarras, which is a pity.

Educated readers however could draw an interesting comparison between the present title and 'Tortilla Flat' or its sequels. Both Steinbeck's and Brenan's works (which are contemporary) describe Anglo/American people living in a Spanish/Mexican environment but besides what these stories have in common, Steinbeck's ones are fictional while Brenan's is real.

And someone could actually dislike how the Englishman behave: I personally think he was too young. Being older and more experienced, maybe he would have made other choices.