Welcome to the Sticks

aka: Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis
France 2008, 102 minutes
Dir. Dany Boon
In French with English subtitles
Rating: [M]
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Comedy

Feat. Kad Merad, Dany Boon, Zoé Félix, Annie Marivin

Aroview: Actor Dany Boon, best known for MY BEST FRIEND, co-wrote and directed this similar comedy about a post-office manager who is, er, posted to dreaded Nord Pas de Calais - France's northernmost region with its own quasi-Flemish dialect.

Tried-and-true and typical of its genre, where characters pretend to be something they're not for the sake of pride, this is most distinctive for being a parochial foreign language comedy that goes to painstaking lengths not to get lost in translation. Kad Merad is a lovable lead, and the regional snob humour is a hoot, though the promising premise eventually reduces to a simmer, and finishes without aftertaste.

NZ International Film Festival 2008