Official Selection — 2005 Tribeca Film Festival;
Winner — FIPRESCI Prize, 2004 London Film Festival
Winner — Best Belgian Actor, 2004 Plateau Awards
This one-of-a-kind gem has left critics trying to trace its roots in
everything from Jacques Tati for its hilarious visual wit to Bad Santa
for making comic protagonists out of an ill-tempered pair who make
everyone else miserable. Gus (Gustave Kervern) is a
hot-under-the-white-collar manager and his neighbor Ben (Benoît
Delépine) is a slovenly, lazy farmer. Their mutual loathing leads to a
brawl in the midst of which they are crushed under the mechanism of
Ben's tractor, and left paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of
their lives. Condemned to each other's company, as well as to
wheelchairs, they set off on an odyssey of revenge, determined to get
reparations from the manufacturer - Finnish-based “Aaltra” - of the
equipment they blame for their fate. The film's intransigent wit and
mordant humor are close cousins to the work of a famed Finnish director
Aki Kaurismäki who turns in a cameo appearance in the final sequence.
Co-directors and co-stars Delépine and Kervern met while working at
Canal Plus on a television show called Grolandsat. After collaborating
on several sketches, the two began work on this absurdist road movie
which became a surprise hot ticket on the international festival
circuit. — Peter Scarlet
“…one of the funniest black comedies in some time.” — Time Out New York
Purchase the Aaltra DVD
About CINEMONDO:
Link TV's CINEMONDO is a nationally broadcast, ground breaking world cinema series hosted and co-curated by Peter Scarlet, Artistic Director of the Tribeca Film Festival. CINEMONDO brings international cinema with great artistic, cultural and political value to the living rooms of Link TV’s American audiences. Learn more.
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