With his exceptional latest film, The Secret of the Grain, Abdellatif Kechiche, provides viewers with a rare glimpse into the kind of raw family life we seldom see depicted onscreen. The film revolves around Slimane, an aging, divorced North-African immigrant in France and his divided, diasporic family. After being made redundant at work, Slimane makes an odd choice, deciding to use his severance money to create a restaurant on a boat, featuring his ex-wife’s famous fish couscous, and in the process ends up creating the sense of unity that his family was missing.
Rym (Hafsia Herzi) and Slimane (Habib Boufares)
The unpolished (and at times almost crude) camera work draws us in with its voyeuristic, documentary feel. We witness loud, incessant talking and bickering, and intergenerational conflict, but it is the relationship between Slimane and his girlfriend’s daughter, Rym that is most interesting. Rym becomes the driving force behind the restaurant, and comes to understand Slimane in a way his “legitimate” children never do. This seemingly simple plot is deceptively complex, as we realize this restaurant is less about Slimane’s goals and more about leaving some sort of legacy for his children. We come to understand Slimane’s experience as an immigrant. As his friend tells Rym, after experiencing the feelings of exile and solitude that go along with leaving your homeland in the name of a better life, there comes a time when you look to your children and ask yourself if it was really worth it. Both insightful and jarring, The Secret of the Grain is a film of surprising depth, well worth the abundance of critical acclaim it has received.
Meg Allan
(Intermedias reviewer at VIFF 2008)
The secret of the grain (La graine et le mulet, France 2007)
Dir. Abdellatif Kechiche
