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The Secret of the Grain

La graine et le mulet

France

2007

154 Min

Color

1.85:1

Arabic, French

Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
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CAST Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi, Faridah Benkhetache, Abdelhamid Aktouche, Alice Houri, Bouraouïa Marzouk, Cyril Favre, Leïla D’issernio, Sami Zitouni

ED Ghalya Lacroix, Camille Toubkis

PROD DES Benoît Barouh

Venice (Competition): Special Jury Prize, Marcello Mastroianni Award, FIPRESCI Prize, Rotterdam, Tribeca (Showcase), San Francisco (World Cinema)

Synopsis

Winner of four César awards, including best picture and director, Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain is a stirring drama about the daily joys and struggles of a bustling French-Arab family. It has the texture of a documentary but a classic, almost Shakespearean structure: when patriarch Slimane acts on his wish to open a port-side restaurant specializing in his ex-wife’s fish couscous, the extended clan’s passions and problems explode in riveting drama, leading to an engrossing, suspenseful climax. With sensitivity and grit, The Secret of the Grain celebrates the role food plays in family life and gets to the core of contemporary immigrant experience.

Director

Abdellatif Kechiche

Abdellatif Kechiche (Arabic: عبد اللطيف كشيش‎, born December 7, 1960 in Tunis, Tunisia) is an actor, movie director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut in 2000 with La Faute à Voltaire (Blame it on Voltaire), aka Poetical Refugee, which he also wrote. He also directed L’Esquive, which won a César Award for Best Film and Best Director. He has presented recently his last film La Graine et le Mulet on 64th Mostra del Cinema at Venezia for which he was awarded the Special Jury Prize, the FIPRESCI Prize, such as later the Louis Delluc Prize and others César Awards for Best Film and Best Director.

As an actor, his introduction to most English-speaking audiences was starring as Ashade the taxi driver in the 2005 psychological thriller “Sorry, Haters”, an “official selection” in both the Toronto and American Film Institute’s film festivals. —Wikipedia

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danliofer

1Apr13

Cous-cous is like the melting cultural pot... tasteful and delicious... making one want to taste and understand...

divya

12Feb12

Very realistic yet gripping portrayal of an immigrant family.

Polyglot likes this

Polyglot

30Jan12

I've got to try some couscous.

Domas and 2 others like this

O Hozomeen, wendy and lucy

AdamantCocoon

29Sep11

Gets sillier the more I think about it, and Hafsia Herzi seems to be the nes of the film and its sole saving grace (not literally towards the end, where I would cut it shorter). Insistent close-ups haven't exactly helped.

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.

Sacha Guitry, Paramount Revivals and More DVDs

By David Hudson on July 27, 2010

"As seen in the quartet of effervescent, extroverted films from the mid-1930s featured in Criterion's boxed set Presenting Sacha Guitry

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!!!

By Marcus WP on November 23, 2010

This is probably the best african/french movie to be released outside of Claire Denis’s filmography, and its also one of the best family dramas of the last decade as well. After watching this for the… read review

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