Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis

Here are my notes for our final screening of the current season:

Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis


France 2008 105 minutes

Director: Dany Boon

Starring: Dany Boon, Karl Merad and Zoe Felix

Nominations and Awards

• Nomination for Cesar for Best Original Screenplay

• Nomination for Best Film (European Film Awards)


Philippe Abrams (Karl Merad), a postal worker in southern France is banished to a town near Dunkirk for two years after falsely claiming to be disabled in order to secure a Mediterranean posting. To his surprise Philippe finds the town charming, but his wife refuses to join him. He decides to tell her what she wants to believe, that life in Northern France is wretched, but then she decides to join him in order to relieve his gloom...


The film broke nearly every box office record in France. By February 2010 more than 20.5 million had seen the film, thereby breaking a record that had stood since 1966. The film was also successful internationally and has spawned plans for a number of international remakes. In Italy Bienvenuti al Sud was released in 2010, with a plot concerning the relocation of a postal service manager from near Milan in northern Italy being relocated to Castellabate a small town near Naples in the south and with Dany Boon appearing in a cameo role.

There has also been discussion about an inevitable US remake, provisionally titled Welcome to the Sticks. There has been no firm announcement about casting or the plot, although there have been hints that the story may revolve around a multinational company.