French film 'Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis' takes box office by storm

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — A French comedy debunking stereotypes about the country's bleak north is breaking box office records, becoming the second biggest all-time hit in cinemas, Pathe film distributors said Tuesday.

"Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis" has pulled in 14.6 million viewers since it was released on February 27, overtaking "Asterix et Obelix: Mission Cleopatre" which ranked second on the list of most popular French-language films.

The film, directed by and starring comic Danny Boon, takes aim at the prejudices about the Nord Pas de Calais region bordering Belgium to reveal the warmth of its people.

"Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis," or in English "Welcome to the Land of the Ch'tis," tells the story of a southerner forced by his company to go north and who finds, once he...