The Heat's On

A somewhat delicious comedy in which a youngish French Arab from Marseilles, having just completed a sentence for possession of cannabis, visits his sister in northern Provence and gets a job in a central heating firm run by and employing some decidedly dodgy types. Once you're in tune with the deadpan style, the film is not only very funny, but has real topical relevance as it deals with racial prejudice, neglect of the elderly, the dead hand of bureaucracy and the blossoming of shoddy work practices. Metina is note-perfect, playing an unlikely variation of a Shane-style hero, and Philibert's deft observation of modern manners is spot on throughout. The title, incidentally, is derogatory slang for a botched job.