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Forget Inside I’m Dancing. 2004’s most entertaining disability comedy is impressively irreverent Belgian road movie Aaltra. Co-directors Benoît Delepine and Gustave Kervern take on the lead roles of the feuding middle-aged neighbours, who have both been paralysed from the waist down following an agricultural accident. Despite their mutual antipathy, the wheelchair-bound duo embark on an epic journey across Europe in an attempt to track down and claim compensation from Aaltra, the Finnish manufacturer of the faulty tractor that caused their injuries.

Shot in dreamy black-and-white, the crisply told Aaltra is mercifully free of the sermonising and sentimentality that afflict so many films involving disabled characters. Ben and Gus make for a memorable odd-couple, the former (Delepine) being a lunkish farm worker and the latter (Kervern) a neurotic commuter. They barely talk to one another during their travels and their utter incomprehension of languages other than their native French is a running theme.

"DISTINGUISHED BY SOME AMUSING CAMEOS"

Peppered with numerous sight gags, Aaltra is also distinguished by some amusing cameos: Jason Flemying plays a hapless motorcross aficionado ("It’s people like you who give people in wheelchairs a bad name", he rages at Ben and Gus), Man Bites Dog director Benoît Poelvoorde is cast as a bigoted passer-by, and Finnish film-maker Aki Kaurismäki pops up in person to wrap up proceedings at the Aaltra factory.

Throughout the film, our protagonists find themselves in bizarre situations, whether it’s attending a thrash gig or a biker bar, or when they’re marooned at the seaside by a bickering Dutch family. What is so refreshing is that these central characters prove to be such deeply selfish and cantankerous individuals who have no qualms about stealing from, exploiting and abusing those foolhardy enough to offer them assistance.

Mainly in French with English subtitles.