A gripping French contribution to the cycle of movies about exile and refugees, this centres on the friendship between a swimming instructor at the Calais municipal baths (the excellent Vincent Lindon) and a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurd bent on swimming the channel to be reunited with his girlfriend in London. The film's chief revelation is the way French officialdom treats both the illegal immigrants and French citizens who assist them. They are effectivement bringing back the terrible, corrosive spirit of the Occupation.