Despite being physical neighbours, albeit ones separated by a channel of water, the English and the French have always had a prickly relationship, one that certainly hasn’t smoothed out recently when the now British PM Liz Truss made an ill-considered reply to a question she got regarding the French PM Macron. As it turned out, he dealt with it with a huge amount of dignity when he was questioned about it. Tres bien monsieur.

We often view them as being somewhat pretentious, and taking themselves far too seriously. They in turn would probably retort that the English don’t take themselves seriously enough, which is a fair statement when you consider we’re more interested in watching shows about baking, or people taking their clothes off, or even watching people watching TV, than hardcore news programming.

This however, is a French film that isn’t afraid to poke fun of the French, albeit in a harsh, dark light at times.

Taking part in a regional dance competition are mature couple Olivier (Olivier Saladin) and Laurence (Lorella Cravotta). They love to dance, but that’s not the main reason for them entering the competition; they have just had a meeting with their bank, who have informed them that they are massively in debt, and may have to sell their family home to pay the bank back, so they hope to win the competition to help out.

They have a son, Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger), who knows something about the law, being a lawyer, but they choose to keep him in the dark.

Elsewhere there is a young woman, Louise (Lilith Grasmug) who is having a gynaecological examination, in preparation of a party and the possibility of having some fun with a boy for the very first time.

There’s also Stéphane (Christophe Paou), who just so happens to be the Minister of Finance, who loves to appear as the solid, family man, but isn’t as clean cut as he might appear.

And then there’s the odd guy (Fred Blin), that no one wants to be introduced to.

They all have their issues, and over a period of time they all become connected in very different ways.

Director Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s latest is a film of the grotesque, in both language and action. It begins with an entertaining discussion between the judges of the dance competition, before heading off in all manner of tangents.

And although it may well start off with some interesting social commentary it goes to some truly dark places by its latter stages.

It’s one of those films then that starts you off in one place, then whips you around to somewhere else, which can be a scene change, leaving with you not quite knowing how to feel about the whole experience.

There is a sense of some over-lapping of stories and characters, with some of their connections somewhat tenuous, which makes the film have an awkward rhythm at times. You're just starting to feel comfortable in one scenario, before being presented with the next. And by the film’s end, there’s no room for comfort at all.

Overall it’s an intriguing curiosity, which does well in certainly taking French cinema into uncharted territory.