Workers for the Good Lord

Workers for the Good Lord (French: Les Savates du bon Dieu) is a 2000 French crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau, starring Stanislas Merhar, Raphaële Godin, Emil Abossolo-Mbo, Paulette Dubost and Coralie Revel. The film was chosen by Cahiers du Cinéma as one of the 10 best pictures of 2000.^[1]

Workers for the Good Lord
Theatrical release poster
French	Les Savates du bon Dieu
Directed by	Jean-Claude Brisseau
Written by	Jean-Claude Brisseau
Produced by	Corinne Bertelot
Starring	Stanislas Merhar Raphaële Godin Emil Abossolo-Mbo Paulette Dubost Coralie Revel
Cinematography	Romain Winding Laurent Fleutot
Edited by	María Luisa García Martinez
Music by	Jean Musy
Production companies	Euripide Productions La Sorcière Rouge
Distributed by	Rezo Films
Release date	8 March 2000 (2000-03-08) (France)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Plot

Elodie, tired of her husband Fred's generous ways, endangering the family's finances, dumps him when he gets fired. Emotionally devastated, he turns into a modern Robin Hood, robbing a post office to help a beggar, and escapes in a stolen car with Sandrine, who has long had a crush on him. They meet Maguette, an African prince turned into a penniless exile. Together the three head south.^[1][2]

Cast

• Stanislas Merhar as Fred
• Raphaële Godin [fr] as Sandrine
• Emil Abossolo-Mbo as Maguette
• Coralie Revel [fr] as Elodie
• Paulette Dubost as grandmother
• Philippe Caroit as Jacques
• Christian Pernet as mechanic
• Romain R'Bibo as Miguel
• Samir Fouzari as Marouf
• Abder-Kader Dahou as Kamel
• Albert Montias as Mangin
• Fabienne Poncet as postmaster
• Aurélie Sterling as Nina

Critical reception

Lisa Nesselson of Variety described the film as "a radical genre pastiche", "over the top", "extravagantly lensed, socio-romantic experiment" adding, "It's so bad it's good."^[3]