Brilliant and touching

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Well, when you get to see this movie as a neutral spectator, there is a lot to complain about; sound is weak, camera and picture quality have remained somewhere in the late 1970s (although the movie is of 1988)and acting seems sluggish! But! This film is about what the South of Luxembourg and shows a picture of the minette region(region in the S of Lux.) after the decline of the steel industry in the late 70s like no movie has done before.Furthermore this is the sort of movie that gives you the wonderful feeling of portraying your country in a way that has never ever been seen on a screen (you know, there are not to many movies about Luxembourg around). Surely the movie is only a caricature of the real situation and it is difficult for someone who has never been to Luxembourg and has never got in touch especially with the people of the South of the country to realize the value of the movie and to understand the comedian value of, for example, luxembourgish police units and amateur bank robbers acting on screen. It is sure that this movie shows kind of jerks how they try to manage to get to do their business and survive; but this special portrait of less privileged people in their struggle between jail and somewhat "normal" lives fascinates especially in the context of a country like Luxembourg. Nevertheless, brilliantly funny (especially some Luxembourgish actors speaking French and German with a spectacular luxembourgish accent).