Review of Welcome to the Sticks

This film, which should be a big success amongst the québecois and other French-speaking Canadians for reasons I will explain later, came out recently here in France and is having pretty substantial success. The plot : basically, a manager of the Post Office in Salon de Provence, France is trying to obtain a transfer to the Riviera in order to satisfy his neurotic and depressive wife who wants to live near the sea. Just when he thinks he's clinched an opening in Sanary-sur-Mer, he learns that preference was given to a handicapped candidate. He then tries to pass off as handicapped, wheelchair and all, during an interview for another post in the same area. All goes well and the interviewer is convinced that he is handicapped and cannot walk when at the end of the interview he stands up to say goodbye and thereby gives himself away ! This is a pretext for a "blâme" or sanction, and the poor guy's punishment is to be transferred, for a period of two years, right to the other end of the country to Bergues, in the Nord department, not far from Lille. To someone from the far south of France, going to the north is like going to the north pole, and his wife's old uncle, brilliantly played by Michel Galabru, warns him about the dangers and sub zero temperatures of the north, so our friend leaves his wife in Salon and makes the journey himself, planning to return home every second weekend. The purpose of the film is in a lighthearted and satirical way is to introduce the spectator to life in the north of France and to have a bash at some of the stereotypes commonly held about this region. The film contains numerous linguistic jokes and references and non French speakers will have difficulty in appreciating the full force and effect of the plays on words. Chti'mi is a dialect spoken in the north of France which tends to muddle c's and ch's, use mi and ti to mean me and you, braire (bray) to mean moan or complain as well as frequent usage of the word "biroute" which elsewhere in France is used for something more crude as well as lavish helpings of the word "quoi" (what, eh ! )pronounced as it if were "quow". I can see the film having enormous success in the French-speaking area of Canada as the Chti accent is not dissimilar to that used by the québecois and I feel intuitively that the latter will relish in it. Director Dany Boon is actually a Chti, or northerner, himself in real life and as well as directing actually plays the part of one of the Bergues post office employees and using his chti accent to excellent effect. His mother in the film is played by singer Line Renaud ( which IMDb lists as being born in Nieppe in Department 59 – Nord – so she may well be a chti herself ! ! )These northerners are painted as high livers, « bons vivants » over indulging in fatty foods and alcohol, very different from the south but little by little, our new manager gets used to this way of life, although the picture he paints to his wife in the south is much blacker than the reality. Eventually she joins him, is initially shocked but ends up enjoying herself too. Plot is not so important in the film, more important is the culture shock and interaction between the players. I have lived for several months in the north of France and the people there are indeed hearty, sincere and friendly, far more so than those in the south of the country who make more noise but are generally shallower as far as friendship goes. I also was lucky enough to have made a guided tour of Bergues about ten years ago, and found it a truly delightful place, surrounded by old fortifications. To resume, I really enjoyed the film and will willingly purchase the DVD when it is issued.