Welcome to the Sticks

Welcome to the Sticks (Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, 2008) is Dany Boon's French comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Philippe runs a post office in the sunny south and dreams of a transfer to the Riviera. Instead, he's caught faking a disability and exiled for two years to the far north.

To a southerner it sounds like the end of the world: nonstop rain, fries with mayonnaise, and a thick local dialect called Ch'ti where even "hello" turns into a puzzle. Philippe arrives in the town of Bergues braced for savages and finds neighbors who warm him up better than any sun. Boon himself plays Antoine, a sweet, clumsy mailman still living with his mother, while Kad Merad carries the lead as the dazed manager who lies to his wife that the north is pure misery.

The film became one of the biggest box-office hits in French history, drawing more than twenty million viewers in France alone. Much of the comedy rides on wordplay, so half the fun is simply hearing the Ch'ti accent collide with proper French. Stream Welcome to the Sticks (2008) online on iFILM.