“Hey Biloute!”, “Dany, Dany!”: In front of the multipurpose room of this town of some 5,000 inhabitants of Pas-de-Calais, transformed by the giant of video streaming into a projection room with red carpet, large screen and chairs folding, the crowd exults to welcome the child of the country.

All generations combined, we crowd around the actor-director who in 2008 exceeded 20 million admissions with “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis”, the biggest success in France for a French film.

The actor signs autographs with a shovel, lowers his fans’ masks for a selfie and pulls out his finest northern accent, saying “Netflikche” for Netflix.

If Dany Boon reserved the preview for his region, the film, which sort on October 20 on the platform, will then be presented in four other French municipalities (La Penne-sur-Huveaune, Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle, etc.), with each time honoring local “heroes” of the confinement.

“Not at the movies? ”

The film “does not go to the cinema?” discovers Roberte Boché, who is getting impatient behind a barrier, calling out to the actors. “So I’ll go see him at my daughter’s house ! ”, Subscribed, she, to Netflix, smiles this inhabitant.

“Certainly, with the events of the Covid, we consume the cinema differently, the platforms allow this easy access “, but” the immersion in the cinema hall, there is nothing like it“, Considers Nicolas, came with his daughter Cassandra because” it is rare that in the provinces, in a small town, we have access to such an event “.

On this Neighbors Day, Dany Boon pays tribute to three childhood friends from Vitry-en-Artois, Wilfried Lallier, Franck Gilloteaux and Léo Guéant, now 19 and 20 years old, posing with them under the crackle flashes, Cannes festival style.

During confinement, these three friends took lessons for the elderly or isolated. They were “formidable, exemplary, generous”, greet Dany Boon before the start of the screening.

Twice 140 residents were invited to two sessions.

A choral film, “8 rue de l’hhumanite” features the inhabitants of a Parisian building caught in the throes of the first confinement, which exacerbates their neuroses but also stimulates their creativity and, ultimately, their humanity.

The plot navigates between a disheveled biologist obsessed with the quest for a vaccine (Yvan Attal), a hypochondriac always armed with a thermometer (Dany Boon), children, sponges of their parents’ anguish, or even a young couple ( Tom Leeb and Alison Wheeler) no longer living except through social networks.

“Première chose the duration”

“For my generation, quite privileged, the health crisis is the first chosen hard of our life that we are going through», Underlines Laurence Arné, co-writer and actress, who plays a lawyer juggling between family and professional constraints. “It is an event that will have marked our generation, there is a kind of solidarity between all of us going through this difficult experience”.

At the exit, the spectators say they are seduced by the mixture of humor and emotions. “I especially remember the disarray at the beginning, when we did not know at all where we were going”, comments Jean-Luc.

A film of an era, “8 rue de l’humanite” is also a film by the mode of distribution chosen.

Netflix is ​​”a complementary medium to cinema”, assures Dany Boon. “The film will be released everywhere, in more than 200 countries (…) and, for those who do not have Netflix, it will be broadcast on a major TV channel, terrestrial, in a few months.», Insists the popular director.

The platform promises to make 2021 the year of “creative and cultural anchoring in France”, with “unifying” and “general public” proposals. The rise of “made in France” must help it meet its European obligations, while the contribution of platforms to French creation is at the heart of the concerns of the world of cinema.