Feast of July is a 1995 American-British neo noir crime film directed by Christopher Menaul and produced by Merchant Ivory Productions, based on the 1954 novel by H. E. Bates, starring Embeth Davidtz and Ben Chaplin.

Plot

The movie opens with Isabella Ford (Embeth Davidtz) travelling alone from Selmouth to Addisford on foot, and in an increasingly pathetic state. In a deserted cabin on the way, she gives birth to a stillborn baby. She buries it and continues her journey. Arriving in Addisford late in the evening, she meets lamplighter Ben Wainwright (Tom Bell), and enquires after a man named Arch Wilson (Greg Wise). Ben does not know him, but seeing her plight, takes her to his house. He instructs his wife (Gemma Jones) to get Bella washed up, and introduces his three children, Matty (Kenneth Anderson), Con (Ben Chaplin) and Jedd (James Purefoy). Matty, the youngest, is a shoemaker, Jedd is a soldier, and Con does not have a profession, but helps out with family chores. Bella is unable to eat any food offered her, but bursts into tears, and faints when she stands up to go to bed.