''The Secret of the Grain'' (french: La graine et le mulet), titled ''Couscous'' in the UK, is a 2007
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ref ...
-
Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
n drama film directed by
Abdellatif Kechiche
Abdellatif Kechiche (; ar, عبد اللطيف كشيش, born 7 December 1960) is a Tunisian- French actor, film director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut in 2000 with '' La Faute à Voltaire'', which he also wrote. Known for his ...
. The film stars Habib Boufares as an aging immigrant from the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
whose ambition to establish a successful restaurant as an inheritance for his large and disparate family meets sceptical opposition from the French bureaucracy.
The French title of the film refers to a "grain of
couscous
Couscous ( '; ber, ⵙⴽⵙⵓ, translit=Seksu) – sometimes called kusksi or kseksu – is a Maghrebi dish of small steamed granules of rolled durum wheat semolina that is often served with a stew spooned on top. Pearl millet, sorghum, ...
" and to
mullet, a type of small fish, both popular in
Tunisian cuisine
Tunisian cuisine, the cuisine of Tunisia, consists of the cooking traditions, ingredients, recipes and techniques developed in Tunisia since antiquity. It is mainly a blend of Mediterranean and native Punics-Berber cuisine.
Historically, Tuni ...
. The two ingredients constitute both the staple of his extended family's diet and the menu on which he plans to establish his restaurant.
Plot
Slimane Beiji (Habib Boufares) is the divorced head of a Franco-Arabic family living in
Sete. As he is being forced out of his job at the local shipyard, he interacts in a series of extended vignettes with various members of his extended family including his ex-wife, his sons and daughters, their husbands and wives, and his grandchildren. Determined to leave a legacy for his beloved family, and encouraged by his long-term partner's daughter, Rym, (Hafsia Herzi) he pursues his dream of converting a dilapidated boat into a family restaurant that will specialise in his ex-wife's fish couscous, a meal that she prepares for the entire family every Sunday.
With Rym's enthusiastic help, Slimane applies for the relevant licences and loans, but soon finds himself knee-deep in bureaucratic red tape. Undaunted, Slimane enlists his sons to help with the renovation and arranges an opening gala of a large dinner party, to which he invites the many bureaucrats on whose decision the fate of the project rests, in an attempt to demonstrate the viability of the enterprise. On the night in question attendance is high, although notable by her absence is his long-term partner, Latifa. Insulted and threatened by the involvement of Slimane's ex-wife in the project, the restaurant's cook and creator of the pivotal fish couscous, Latifa refuses to leave her hotel. Rym pleads with her to attend, encouraging her to use the opportunity to flaunt her comparative youth and beauty in front of Slimane's ex-wife, and eventually she concedes.
Having prepared the couscous, fish, vegetables and sauce in large metal cauldrons, Slimane's ex-wife sends the food to the boat with her sons and leaves her apartment to find a 'poor man' so that she can donate a plate of food that she habitually reserves for the less fortunate. At the restaurant, the sons unload the metal cauldrons and the women serve wine and appetisers to the waiting guests. The guests, talking amongst themselves, begin to speak both positively and anxiously about the likely success of the restaurant, now concerned that it may draw custom away from the other restaurants in the area. Slimane's son Majid, whilst surveying the crowd, notices a bureaucrat's wife with whom he has had several illicit sexual liaisons and decides to leave quietly. He instructs his brother to tell the rest of the family that he has gone to help a friend who has broken down on the highway. The women start to heat up the food when they notice the absence of the couscous. Panic mounts when they discover that it is definitively absent and Majid, who has taken the car that still holds the metal cauldron in the trunk, is not answering his phone. Knowing that it will take at least another hour to cook a new batch, they continue to frantically call Majid and attempt to call Souad, who is out searching for an unfortunate in need of plate of couscous. Slimane takes his motorbike out to Souad's apartment building to find her.
In the dining room the guests, despite the attempts of the women to placate them with assurances and date liqueur, become extremely restless. Their comments turn nasty and they turn on the waitressing girls. When he cannot find his ex-wife, Slimane leaves the apartment building to find his motorbike stolen. The culprits, three young boys, sit atop the stolen bike on the other side of the river, mocking him. He runs after them, but every time they stop to mock him they move on before he can catch up to them.
Tensions in the dining room reach a peak and Rym decides to step in. She whispers to the musicians, and suddenly the music stops and the lights go out. When they come back on, Rym stands before the assembled diners in a red belly-dancing outfit. The musicians play for her and she entrances the guests with a fervent performance, charged with youthful, sexual energy. Latifa uses the opportunity to slip off the boat and return to the hotel to start a new pot of couscous.
As Rym dances and sweats, her mother walks up the gangplank with a new cauldron of couscous, whilst Slimane continues to chase the youths around the apartment building. Finally he sinks to his knees, before collapsing flat on the ground, unmoving.
Cast
* Habib Boufares as Slimane Beiji, a sixty-year-old shipyard worker and immigrant from the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
. Divorced from his first wife, Souad, he lives in the run-down Hotel de l'Orient owned by Latifa and her daughter Rym.
*
Hafsia Herzi
Hafsia Herzi (born 25 January 1987) is a French actress and film director. She is best known for her debut role in the award-winning Franco-Tunisian feature '' The Secret of the Grain'' for which she won the award for most promising actress at the ...
as Rym, the precocious twenty-year-old daughter of hotelier Latifa and a second-generation immigrant. She regards Slimane as her father and works to assist him in realising his ambition of starting a couscous restaurant.
* Hatika Karaoui as Latifa, proprietor of the Hotel de l'Orient and Slimane's lover.
* Bouraouïa Marzouk as Souad, Slimane's first wife of roughly equal age and matriarch of their family. She lives in an apartment building on the floor below her son Hamid and regularly cooks a large Sunday meal of couscous for her extended family.
* Farida Benkhetache as Karima, Slimane's daughter from his first marriage to Souad. She works in a tuna cannery and has two young children of her own by her husband.
* Abdelhamid Aktouche as Hamid
*
Alice Houri
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
as Julia, a young Russian immigrant unhappily married to Majid. She feels isolated from and unsupported by his large family, left alone all day and often all night to care for their young son with only her brother for comfort and assistance. Nonetheless she attempts to participate in the endeavour to establish the couscous restaurant.
* Cyril Favre as Sergei, Julia's supportive and diplomatic brother who gently attempts to reconcile Slimane and his family to his sister's suffering and Majid's neglect.
* Sami Zitouni as Majid, Slimane and Souad's eldest son. Married to Russian immigrant Julia with an infant son, he is a notorious philanderer; whilst he neglects his own young family, he still participates fully in the life of his extended family.
*
Sabrina Ouazani
Sabrina Ouazani (born 6 December 1988) is a French actress of Algerian descent. She is best known internationally for her performance as Frida in ''Games of Love and Chance'' and as Charlotte Ben Smires in Netflix's hit rom-com series ''The Hook ...
as Olfa, another of Slimane's daughters by Souad and the youngest sibling, charged with caring for the younger children in the extended family.
* Mohamed Benabdeslem as Riadh, Slimane's youngest son by Souad. An adolescent with a nascent moustache, he assists in renovating the restaurant-boat under his father's supervision and maintains a romantic infatuation with Rym.
* Henri Cohen as M. Dorner, the Deputy Mayor of the port town responsible for authorising Slimane's docking permissions for his restaurant-boat. A powerful man in the town, he is slated as a potential candidate for Mayor.
* Violaine de Carné as Mme. Dorner, the wife of the Deputy Mayor and casual affair of Slimane's son, Majid.
*
Carole Franck
Carole Franck (born 1970 in Paris) is a French actress.
Filmography
Dubbing
Theatre
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Franck, Carole
Living people
French film actresses
French television actresses
Actresses from Par ...
as Guy's Neighbor
*
Bruno Lochet
Bruno Lochet (born 18 October 1959) is a French actor. He is best known for playing in the cult TV series ''Les Deschiens'' (1993–2002), in which he played alongside Yolande Moreau
Yolande Moreau (born 27 February 1953) is a Belgian comedia ...
as Mario
Critical reception
''The Secret of the Grain'' holds an 83/100 on
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
and a 92% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, with the critical consensus stated by the latter aggregator as, "A complex portrait of an immigrant family, ''The Secret of the Grain'' is a sprawling, intimate film with many fine performances." The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.
A. O. Scott of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' named it the 3rd best film of 2008,
[ Andrew O'Hehir of '']Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
'' named it the 6th best film of 2008,[ and Scott Foundas of '']LA Weekly
''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...
'' named it the 7th best film of 2008 (along with ''A Christmas Tale
''A Christmas Tale'' (french: link=no, Un conte de Noël) is a 2008 French comedy-drama film by Arnaud Desplechin, starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Melvil Poupaud, Emmanuelle Devos and Chiara Mas ...
'').
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Morr ...
, film critic for the Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
, writing for the Criterion online accompaniment to the film, notes that the film is “essentially a portrait of an extended family whose dynamics are steadily reframed in a collection of long, eventful scenes.” The cast get to play “actual people—not symbols, inmates, nannies, or the undignified other,” and “their concerns have little to do with overt oppression or xenophobia.” He praises Abdellatif Kechiche because the “narrative in this film is secondary to human nature...” He calls the belly-dance in final sequence “complexly conceived and realized, and says “the dancer uses sex and cultural exoticism to distract tables of formerly civilized but suddenly restless white natives.” Kechiche “invites us to acknowledge a fundamental truth about Arabs—or any people of color—in the history of the movies: stereotypes sell.”
Awards and nominations
César Award Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol
* ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt
* César Award, a French film award
Places
* Cesar, Portugal
* C ...
, 2008:
* Best French Film
* Best Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
* Best Original Screenplay: Abdellatif Kechiche
* Most Promising Actress: Hafsia Herzi
Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
The Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival ( tr, Antalya Altın Portakal Film Festivali), known for a few years from 2015 as Antalya International Film Festival, is a film festival, held annually since 1963 in Antalya, and is the second most impor ...
, 2007
* Best Director (Eurasia Film Festival): Abdellatif Kechiche
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
, 2007:
* Special Jury Prize (ex-æquo / tie, with ''I'm Not There
''I'm Not There'' is a 2007 musical drama film directed by Todd Haynes, and co-written by Haynes and Oren Moverman. It is an unconventional biographical film inspired by the life and music of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors de ...
'')
* Marcello Mastroianni Prize (for actor or actress in a début role): Hafsia Herzi
* SIGNIS Award - Honorable Mention: Abdellatif Kechiche
* Nominated: Golden Lion
The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...
Louis Delluc Prize The Louis Delluc Prize (french: Prix Louis-Delluc ) is a French film award presented annually since 1937. The award is bestowed to the Best Film and Best First Film of the year on the second week of each December. The jury is composed of 20 members, ...
, 2007
Distribution
The film was released in the Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
in 2010.The Secret of the Grain
Product Page.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
''The Secret of the Grain: No Secrets''
an essay by Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Morr ...
at the Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Secret Of The Grain, The
2007 films
2007 drama films
French drama films
Best Film César Award winners
Louis Delluc Prize winners
Films about race and ethnicity
Films directed by Abdel Kechiche
Venice Grand Jury Prize winners
Films set on boats
Films set in restaurants
Films whose director won the Best Director César Award
Films whose director won the Best Director Lumières Award
European Film Awards winners (films)
Films produced by Claude Berri
Cooking films
Films about food and drink
Tunisian drama films
2000s French-language films
2000s French films