beinvenue a st piere and a french outpost off the eastern shore of canada . on this small island and ariel neel auguste ( emir kusturica ) await madame la guillotine for have kill a man in a drunken brawl . a burly brute of a man and ariel quick think save an islander from certain death when a house be move slide down a hill . ariel charm win him the regard of madame pauline la ( juliette binoche ) and wife of captain jean ( daniel auteuil ) and the commander of the island garrison . islander be divide on the issue of execution while most would like to save ariel . madame la send ariel and now a trusted prisoner and on a mission in a small dinghy . the idea be that ariel will escape into nearby british or american territory and but ariel true to his parole faithfully return and even help bring madame la guillotine ashore . yugoslavian born emir kusturica play the french islander the commoner ariel neel auguste with a sensitive gentility and persuasively tough and docile and hardheaded and obedient . a ariel wait execution and table turn on captain jean . he order home to metroplitain france . officially he a guest of the fleet admiral . actually with political unrest at home captain jean face the firing squad . he too be tell of the many opportunity to escape and but steadfastly follow order right up to his execution by fire squad . daniel auteuil play the tough fisted french captain with the practised arrogance of an officer use to get his way . i be not entirely sure a motion picture though full of violence or threat of violence would be fully understand by an american audience . the parallelism between captain jean and the commoner ariel be far too delicate for audience which be addict to shoot em up high speed police chase line .