The Secret of the Grain

Slimane is sixty, works in the shipyard at the port of Sète, and is laid off. He wants to open his own restaurant: a place on a boat serving couscous. The banks will not lend and the council makes the licence difficult. The family organises an opening dinner and everything hangs on that night. The subject is not immigrant success but how scattered a family is around a meal. Slimane is divorced, it is his ex-wife who makes the couscous, and Rym, his girlfriend's daughter, is the only person holding the opening together. Nobody quite talks to anybody. The form is long and close: the camera sits among faces, speech overlaps, scenes are not cut before they end. The family dinner runs close to half an hour and contains no event at all. The waiting sequence at the end is deliberately unbearable in length. Abdellatif Kechiche directs. Hafsia Herzi plays Rym in her first major role and was named most promising actress at the Césars; the film won four, including best film and best director. It was also awarded at Venice. Habib Boufares plays Slimane and is not a professional actor. Who it is for: viewers who like long, observational French realism. Who it is not for: anyone after pace; the film runs close to two and a half hours and is almost entirely talk.