Un village presque parfait (2014)

Saint-Loin-la-Mauderne is a small, isolated village in the Pyrenees, where almost all the residents used to work at the smoked-salmon factory, processing fish caught in the river. But a paper mill downstream polluted the water, causing the factory to close and the salmon to disappear, even though the paper mill itself has since shut down. The factory has never found a new owner, and the village has suffered from rural depopulation and fallen into decline; the school has closed. Everyone, including the mayor, lives on welfare benefits. Hope returns when their application for aid from the European Union is approved to set up a new business. But one of the conditions has not been met: there must be a doctor based in the village for five years. The mayor and the villagers set about trying to recruit one, but without success. One night in Paris, a municipal police officer originally from Saint-Loin-la-Mauderne pulls over a young doctor for a traffic violation. The doctor hopes to become a cosmetic surgeon. Caught with a small quantity of drugs, he strikes a deal: the officer will let him off if he comes to the village for a one-month trial period. The mayor and the residents do everything they can to make the village as welcoming as possible, hoping the doctor will settle there for good. When they learn that he is passionate about cricket, they turn the rugby field into a cricket pitch and, with great difficulty, try to learn how to play. The mayor and his cronies listen in on his phone calls to find out what he likes and what he intends to do. When they learn that his favorite dish is beef Stroganoff, they put it on the village restaurant’s menu as the dish of the day.