Camping à la ferme (2005) - film review

Six juvenile delinquents from inner city Paris are offered an alternative to the usual short sharp shock of a prison sentence – a month in the country doing odd jobs for the community.  Amar, the social worker in charge of the group, has his job cut out trying to keep the young rebels and social misfits in order – not an easy task when the countryside offers them few distractions and some of the locals provoke them with racist taunts.  The only person who seems pleased with this initiative is the mayor of the community, who sees this as an opportunity to promote her work and herself...

Director Jean-Pierre Sinapi looks on the lighter side of racial and cultural clashes in this upbeat comedy, his third full length film to date.  In common with Sinapi’s earlier Nationale 7 (2000) and Vivre me tue (2002), Camping à la ferme presents a disparate group of people (most played by non-professional actors) who are trying to fit in with the intolerant world around them, overcoming their own prejudices and that of others as they do so.  Admittedly it is somewhat less substantial than the director’s previous films, but its appealing blend of social realism and comedy, its well-drawn characters and unpredictable humour give it a certain charm and dynamism that is hard to resist.  However, some may consider the film to be wilfully optimistic and maintain that Mathieu Kassivitz’s La Haine (1995) still provides a far more accurate representation of the race issue in Western society today.

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