Fort Beauséjour in Aulac, N.B., was the site of a film shoot Saturday.

A Moncton director is making a short film about a group of Acadians who made a daring escape from the fort in 1756.

The fort, now a national historic site, had fallen under British rule and had been renamed Fort Cumberland, said Donovan Richard.

A group of Acadians, being held by the British, managed to get out of the bunker by digging a tunnel under the fort walls using pieces of bones left over from their food.

"They would go in one at a time and they would dig a tunnel, come out with the dirt, and then they would either take the dirt and put it underneath their beds, or they would walk, you know, in the field and, you know, just dumping it," he said.

"Sometimes, they would even just eat it — they would mix it with their food."

The men crawled through the tunnel then escaped on foot from the fort, which is located at the head of the Bay of Fundy, on the border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Based on history

Parts of the film are fictional, but it is based on historic events, said Richard, who is an Acadian.

Although he has seen other films about Acadian history, his will be different, he said.

"This film here, what's interesting about it is that the British soldiers will of course speak English, but my Acadian characters all speak French and the Acadians speak Acadian.

"Sometimes we see other films, you know, and then everybody speaks proper French and stuff.

"I just wanted to keep it as real as we could."

Richard, who received a $5,000 grant from NB Film to make the movie, plans to spend the winter editing. He hopes to have his rough cut completed in April.