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You can stream Bitter Rice (1949) on Criterion Channel with a subscription, rent on Apple TV+, or buy on Apple TV+.

Francesca and Walter are two-bit criminals in Northern Italy, and, in an effort to avoid the police, Francesca joins a group of women rice workers. She meets the voluptuous peasant rice worker, Silvana, and the soon-to-be-discharged soldier, Marco. Walter follows her to the rice fields, and the four characters become involved in a complex plot involving robbery, love, and murder.

Sun-drenched rice paddies in Northern Italy become a sweltering pressure cooker for lust and desperation. This neo-realist gem captures the raw, earthy magnetism of its laboring cast amidst a cycle of crime and seasonal toil.

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