A Town Like Alice (1956 film)

A Town Like Alice is a 1956 British drama film starring Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch that is based on the eponymous 1950 novel by Nevil Shute. The film does not follow the whole novel, concluding at the end of Part Two and truncating or omitting much detail. It was partially filmed in Malaya and Australia.

Jean goes to the village and arranges for the well to be dug. The women will not now have to walk so far each day to collect water, as they have always done. She recalls her life in the village for three years of the war.The film flashes back to 1942 when Jean was working in an office in Kuala Lumpur in Malaya when the Japanese invaded and she was taken prisoner. As part of a group of women and children the men having been sent away, she is the only one to speak Malay fluently, and so takes a leading role in the group. ........

Source: Wikipedia