Aaltra [1994] [DVD]

"Aaltra" was something of a sleeper at the 2005 London Film Festival, poorly attended for the first showing and packed for the second once word got round.

It's a two-man-band of a movie, being written and directed by, and starring, two French comedians, Benoit Delepine and Gustave de Kervern. It's also a homage to the Finnish director, Aki Kaurismaki, being shot in Black & White (in Belgium) in the same deadpan style, with the same use of long shot and the same slow burn sense of humour and affection for losers. Kaurismaki himself makes a guest appearance in the final section of the film, set in Finland.

The plot starts with the archetypes of town vs. country. None of the characters are given names. A harassed commuting businessman (Delepine) has been skyving by working from home, but is called to a meeting on threat of losing his job. His way is blocked by his mortal enemy, the countryman who lives opposite (de Kervern), driving his tractor at a snail's pace and spraying poisonous chemicals all over the townie's garden. The job is lost, and so Delepine returns home early, only to find his wife having sex with another man. In a rage he searches out the farm hand....

When they both come to, they have both been seriously injured and will be using wheelchairs for the rest of their lives. The two enemies are reluctantly forced into alliance by their situation and the hostility they face towards "cripples" (as they are called by other characters). "Aaltra" then turns into an eccentric road movie, as they make their way in their chairs first to Namur for the MotoCross which the Townie loves, and after across Europe to Finland in an effort to get compensation for their accidents from Aaltra, the manufacturer of the farm machinery which crushed them.

The other great influence on the film is Jacques Tati, because it is full of absurd images, often in long shot, which become funnier the longer they are dwelt on. Like Tati, the directors know the value of taking their time to set up and resolve a gag. The humour is visual, and also humour of situation, not verbal.

What makes this so refreshing as a film is that there is no condescension towards the main characters, who are both just as unlikeable once they become disabled as they were before. They rob, cheat, lie, threaten to get what they want, their only excuse being that they can't get it any other way. When other characters are hostile, they get revenge; when other characters are friendly or show sympathy, they abuse good nature by eating everything in sight, getting drunk, stealing a valuable motorbike and trashing it, etc.

This is the favourite film of several of my.disabled friends, because it asks for and gives no quarter. It will also make you laugh out loud in several places. If I drop it one star, it is because sometimes it is just a tad too slow for its own good.

A black and white Belgian road movie? Oh yes, and it's quite revelatory.

Well it's made by two Belgians but it's set somewhere in Northern France. In short, it's the story of two neighbours, hating each other daily, from across their adjoining properties. That is until one day, during a violent dispute, an agricultural trailer topples upon them and brings them together in a way they'd have never thought possible, or even wanted!

After being paralysed from the waist down and confined to wheelchairs, and after giving up on the idea of doing themselves in, they each separately decide to gain revenge in the form of seeking compensation from the manufacturers of the trailer, the only way they know how, on their own wheels! Problematically, the manufacturers just happen to be based in Finland, and as such, the road movie begins!

They set out separately, only to come face to face on the railway platform, waiting for the same train. Brought together again, their hatred of each other comes to the fore.

I won't say anymore, but if you'd like something a bit more darkly cringe-worthy, maybe in the style of a Chris Morris sketch or an Alan Partridge vintage, then this should be on your list!

It's crude at times, you'll want to see how they get on with their quest, but you won't necessarily be rooting for them. What you will be doing is laughing, but maybe behind your palms if there's company around!

It's dark, it's funny but under it all, there's a message too, as they begin to realise things along the way, right up to the end in the land of Kaurismäki, which is very fitting. It certainly has his essence in parts.

A great film, and just wait for the pure gibberish monotonous babble of the Bouli Lanners song at the end!

A brilliant biting satire that will have you in stiches from start to finish. brilliant sequences of madcap hilarious action which come thick and fast from these talented and fearless actors. Don't miss it!