"Christian Vincent had a real urge to go to the North. You can feel it when he films the mining villages and the slag heaps ; we're really in the North, we follow the people, we enter their homes like in a documentary. The North is a region with a strong identity. In a café scene, a guy spontaneously shakes our hands before leaving. One might think it an idea of the script-writer to amuse or surprise, but no, that's just how things are here. Today the mines are closed, the region has entered a period of decline, yet there is a hospitality, a warmth in people ; as we can see in the house scene, the door is always open. Perhaps it's because there's nothing left here, that human warmth is so prized." (Jackie Berroyer)