Saint Pauly

Like a hug where you press your chest against the other person and don't do the back pat. The best thing about A l'ombre des filles (I refuse categorically to refer to this film by its ridiculous English title) is everything it isn't. The idea isn't new: a teacher volunteers to go to prison to teach the prisoners and learns valuable life lessons along the way. But what was refreshing about the movie was how it avoided romanticizing the women and eschewed standard clichés while taking a harder than normal look at the hardships these women face. It's like they saw the American version of this coming for it and decided to run it over with a beat-up Citroën at full speed. PS Alex Lutz is one hell of an actor.