Dany Boon reconciles the North/South divide in this French box-office success. By KATE BLACKHURST.

SOMETIMES the short film that precedes the main feature can give you a clue what to expect. Noise Control is a charming animated documentary based upon the true story of a rooster at Raumati South kindergarten who fell foul (sorry!) of his neighbours due to the noise he made. It is a light-hearted look at how we could all just get along better if we recognised our differences, told through cartoon characters and ending with a song: ‘Rock-a-doodle-do’.

A similar plot synopsis could be used for Welcome to the Sticks, which is apparently the most-seen film in the history of French cinema. Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad) manages a post office in Provence while attempting to secure a cushy job in the coveted Riviera. It looks as though this may descend into a sick farce as he pretends to be handicapped to secure this sinecure, but when his ruse is rumbled he is sent to the dreaded North (the Pas-de-Calais region) as punishment.

The North/South divide prejudice is alive and well in France as much as anywhere, and the assumption by one side that everyone who lives in the other is an ignorant buffoon is nothing new. People from this area are known as Ch’timi and they speak with a distinctive and unintelligible dialect, leading to semantic jokes which are a subtitler’s nightmare. The subtitles are very good and make much of the use of a lisp, but it is slightly confusing if you are trying to read them while translating the French.

Philippe and his wife Julie (Zoe Felix) are convinced that the northerners are pale, simple, socially inept, smelly cheese eating, alcoholics who live with their mothers until they’re 40, work in coalmines and have frostbitten toes. Julie says she is not strong enough to accompany her husband and so he works there during the week, returning to Provence at the weekends.

Naturally (in the same vein as Seducing Dr Lewis; Local Hero) he finds himself falling for the allure of the village of Bergues and the welcoming locals who adopt him, inviting him to al fresco meals from the pie cart and football matches. He becomes friends with his colleagues, especially Antoine (Dany Boon, the director) with whom he goes on a drinking spree on a mail bike. This drunk and disorderly escapade is gentle and amusing – far from the public opprobrium that meets mates having one too many in this country.

Bergues really is beautiful and when the Carillion bells, played by Antoine, peal out over the countryside, you wonder what the snobbish scorn is all about. It was devastated by bombardment in World War I, and again in 1940 during the Battle of Dunkirk. It has many monuments which are reminders of a rich past, and tourism has been developed in recent years, particularly since the release of this film. Antoine tells Philippe that every southerner cries twice when they come here – once when they arrive, and once when they leave. Of course it is a prophecy that will come true.

The problem is that Julie, the temperamental wife, is never happy with what she’s got. When she believes her husband is miserable, she rises to the occasion and becomes affectionate, revelling in her nurturing wifely duty and proud of the sacrifice she deems he is making for her and the family. Not wanting to spoil this new ‘tendress’, he plays along, but façade is threatened when she pays him a visit, resulting in an excellent set piece of reinforced stereotypes. Wondering how to save the ensuing debacle he turns to Antoine who informs him, “We all make mistakes – what matters is how you fix it”.

Many reviewers claim that this film won’t work outside France but to anyone who speaks the same language but with a different accent (‘fush and chups’ anyone?), it will have resonance. The message is that just because people don’t speak with Received Pronunciation, it doesn’t mean they’re all bad – people from Essex, Gore and Toowoomba, rejoice! I’m not sure this is the best French film ever, but it is a charming proponent of an old theory: Vive le difference!