"In the Beginning": A good title to start with!

An incredible true story! A rather shy and silent guy (François Cluzet) arrives in a small town, lying about his identity. He soon understands he can make money with the motorway project that was abandoned two years before. He brings hope to people in this region hit by the crisis and everyone, including the mayor (Emmanuelle Devos) gets conned: they all roll up their sleeves and start building the road. How is everything going to end?

Cluzet is excellent in the role of the coy, almost unwilling conman who gets overtaken by his scheme. During the whole film I was wondering when people would find out he's a sham... and it's crazy to think how long it took in reality! I quite enjoyed feeling ill-at-ease for him (he never smiles or relaxes... at the beginning), and watching his project evolve. Devos, Soko (yes, the singer from Bordeaux with the online hit 'I'll Kill Her') and Rottiers are really convincing characters too. But Cluzet's role is the most fascinating: what went through the head of this guy who managed to convince a whole village to build a road to nowhere?

What I like in this type of movies is the balance between a powerful individual story and wider social issues. I've seen and would recommend quite a few UK films in the same category, 'social realism', a genre showing working people and the realities of their everyday lives. It is representative of British cinema, with famous directors such as Ken Loach or Mike Leigh and films like 'My Beautiful Laundrette', 'Brassed Off', 'The Full Monty', 'Secret and Lies', 'The Navigators', 'Billy Elliot', 'This is England', and recently, the excellent 'We Want Sex Equality', for example. Good idea for a new list!
More info on: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1037898/
and: http://www.bbc.co.uk/britishfilm/summer/documentary/social_realism.shtml