The Secret of the Grain

Released Dec 24, 2008

2h 31m

Drama

List

93%

54 Reviews

Tomatometer

76%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

As the shipyard where a Tunisian immigrant works is winding down, Slimane plans to us his redundancy to open a couscous restaurant, with the main dish cooked by his ex-wife Souad, who is renowned among family and friends for the quality of her food. His daughter Rym supports him and she uses her wiles to help him but he must also win over the local businessmen and bureaucrats to raise funds and gain planning permission.

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Critics Consensus

A complex portrait of an immigrant family, The Secret of the Grain is a sprawling, intimate film with many fine performances.

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Audience Member

This was certainly a powerful story of life's purpose, meaning, and the result that random coincidences can have on it. Unfortunately, it was way too long but the conclusion was well executed.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Writer-director Abdellatif Kechiche, a French-Tunisian and a former actor, makes movies portraying a multi-cultural, modern France that have an exquisite intimacy that resonates unlike anything else in contemporary cinema. Kechiche frequently favors extreme close-ups, and lets scenes play out beyond normal dramatic standards, to arrive at an emotional truth without veering into melodrama. This method also allows him the freedom to elicit naturalistic performances from his remarkable cast. Habib Boufares is Slimane, an aging Tunisian immigrant, who is laid off from his job at a shipyard port, so he pursues his dream of opening a couscous restaurant. With his soft-spoken, droopy demeanor he reminded me of Umberto D. There is an extended sequence involving a family dinner gathering, and we begin to see in great detail how fractured these familial relationships are. Slimane has a mistress (Leila D'Issernio), and is affectionate with her entrepreneurial daughter (Hafsia Herzi), but also seeks the help of his ex-wife (Bouraouia Marzouk), a couscous cook. In the final hour-long sequence, the entire family is brought together to assist Slimane in opening the restaurant, but things don't go according to plan and the occasion turns into a tragic-comedy on French socioeconomics. In a film filled with amazing performances, particularly among all the beautiful women, newcomer Herzi is a standout. An extraordinarily sensual beauty of Algerian and Tunisian descent, Herzi performs an astonishingly vigorous, seductive belly dance that left me agog. Written by Kechiche and Ghalia Lecroix. In French with English subtitles.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I like the characters and feel sympathy and comprehension for them, but that is not enough to make a movie.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Audience Member

God, the first half is really boring and it has this over-complicated knot. Thank God the second half is more interesting and mind-provoking. But I think it's overuse the short-range shots and the cinematography & style aren't fresh and interesting. The cinematography just REALLY plain. And it's not really complex, and the actors ability are good. Hafsia Herzi is really excellent while Habib Boufares makes me yawning.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Neo-realist. Beautiful. Profound. And with the most life like performances I've ever seem captured on film. Modern classic. Essential viewing. One of the best films of the 21st century.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Exquisite, provocative, gorgeous, subtle...

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

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Abdel Kechiche

Director

Habib Boufares

Slimane Beiji

Hafsia Herzi

Rym

Farida Benkhetache

Karima

Abdelhamid Aktouche

Hamid

Bouraouïa Marzouk

Souad

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Shubhra Gupta

The Indian Express

[Abdel] Kechiche knows his subject and the film reflects the warmth and understanding with which he views it, though it is inordinately long at 2 hrs and 30 minutes.

Apr 30, 2019

Full Review

Elisabeth Lequeret

Film Comment Magazine

Kechiche may subscribe to Renoir's "Everyone has his reasons," but here he shoots the action with a nervous tension that's more evocative of Pialat.

Nov 14, 2013

Full Review

David Fear

Time Out

Rated: 5/5

Nov 17, 2011

Full Review

Kaleem Aftab

The List

This depiction of Arab family life with all its attendant problems shares with comparable drama La Haine an empathy for immigrants.

Rated: 4/5

Nov 4, 2018

Full Review

Annie Wagner

The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

Almost certainly the best movie in SIFF 2008, Abdellatif Kechiche's follow-up to Games of Love & Chance burrows into a tight-knit Tunisian immigrant community in a small port town in the south of France.

Aug 21, 2017

Full Review

Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

The best of the film is expressed between the beats of the plot and the meandering conversations around dinner tables or over drinks on the sidewalk tables of a hotel bar. It's as joyous and genuine a portrait of a community as you'll see in the movies.

May 12, 2017

Full Review

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Synopsis

As the shipyard where a Tunisian immigrant works is winding down, Slimane plans to us his redundancy to open a couscous restaurant, with the main dish cooked by his ex-wife Souad, who is renowned among family and friends for the quality of her food. His daughter Rym supports him and she uses her wiles to help him but he must also win over the local businessmen and bureaucrats to raise funds and gain planning permission.

Director: Abdel Kechiche
Producer: Pierre Grunstein
Screenwriter: Abdel Kechiche
Distributor: IFC Films
Production Co: Pathé Renn Productions, France 2 Cinéma, Hirsch Productions
Genre: Drama
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 24, 2008, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): May 23, 2017
Runtime: 2h 31m

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