La graine et le mulet (2007)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Abdel Kechiche

Writer:

Abdel Kechiche (writer)

Release Date:

12 December 2007 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

It takes will, courage and determination to realise a dream. But most of all it takes family

Plot:

At the port of Sète Mr. Slimani, a tired sixty year old, drags himself towards a shipyard job which...

Plot Keywords:

Shipyard | Entrepreneurship | Family Pride | Belly Dance | Belly Dancer

Awards:

18 wins & 4 nominations

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Habib Boufares	...	Slimane Beiji
Hafsia Herzi	...	Rym
Farida Benkhetache	...	Karima
Abdelhamid Aktouche	...	Hamid
Bouraouïa Marzouk	...	Souad
Alice Houri	...	Julia
Leila D'Issernio	...	Lilia
Abelkader Djeloulli	...	Kader
Olivier Loustau	...	José
Sabrina Ouazani	...	Olfa
Mohamed Benabdeslem	...	Riadh
Bruno Lochet	...	Mario
Cyril Favre	...	Serguei
Sami Zitouni	...	Majid
Mohamed Karaoui	...	Lafita

Also Known As:

The Secret of the Grain (Australia) (Canada: English title) (festival title) (USA)
Couscous (International: English title)

Runtime:

France:151 min | USA:151 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | Arabic | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | France:U | Netherlands:12 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Sweden:7 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Chantier naval, Sète, Hérault, France

Company:

Pathé Renn Productions

Trivia:

Filming was supposed to start in summer of 2005 but one of the leading actors was ill, resulting in a major delay. Thus, filming actually started on 5 September 2005 and was still running by 16 January 2006. The set was on a boat in the port of Sète for a least 6 weeks from October to December, 2006. Outside temperatures were very low, as opposed to what they should have been if schedule could have been held. This led the production to set up large tents near the set (boat) with heating systems for the actors and extras to remain comfortable between takes.

Movie Connections:

References Finding Nemo (2003)

Moving human drama with subtlety

I have heard this film being compared to Eat Drink Man Woman, which is fair enough, if not slightly deceptive. Sure, there's a similar veneration for the art of cooking and how this draws and binds families. But the film casts a wider net than this may suggest. For me, it strongly resembles the humanistic and naturalistic stories of Robert Guédiguian, particularly La ville est tranquille (The Town is Quiet).

The actors are largely non-professionals. The use of long takes, including long stretches of dialogue, is very impressive and suggests that some of the script may be improvisational. I liked the chit-chat, the small details of daily life (like toilet-training a child), that films normally gloss over.

The film has a documentary look and feel and parts are like a fly-on-the-wall at a family gathering. For me, the importance of this is to convey how human this family is, with a rich and warm cultural heritage. In particular, it renders as impotent, irrational fears of Muslim culture.

The film works on multiple levels because it taps into the universal everyday concerns that potentially touch us all in one form or another: prejudice against immigrants, attitudes towards Islam post 9-11, globalisation, ageism in the workforce, the effects of poverty, family breakdown and more. Yet, importantly, the film is not preachy but merely presents life in a matter-of-fact way.

The female performances in the film are particularly affecting, especially the young Hafsia Herzi playing Rym, the daughter of Slimane's lover, and Leila D'Issernio who plays his Russian daughter-in-law.

At 148 minutes, the film is quite long, though this is not apparent until the final scene, which seems to be prolonged in real-time for a particular effect. On paper, the story looks like something we've seen before, but avoids all the clichés we might expect. I loved it.