La femme des sables

An amateur entomologist leaves Tokyo to study an unclassified beetle species in a remote desert. After missing his bus back to civilization, he is persuaded to spend the night in the hut of a young widow (Kiyoko Kishida) at the bottom of a sand dune. Local villagers trap him into staying there with her, where her endless task is shoveling sand for them, and he finds himself preferring his confined life in the sandpit.