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The Secret of the Grain (2007)

La graine et le mulet (original title)
Not Rated | | Drama | 12 December 2007 (France)
The Secret of the Grain Poster
In southern France, a Franco-Arabic shipyard worker along with his partner's daughter pursues his dream of opening a restaurant.

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19 wins & 7 nominations. See more awards »

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Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Stars: Hafsia Herzi, Salim Kechiouche, Ophélie Bau
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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Habib Boufares ... Slimane Beiji
... Rym
Farida Benkhetache ... Karima
Abdelhamid Aktouche ... Hamid
... Julia
Bouraouïa Marzouk ... Souad
Cyril Favre ... Serguei
Leila D'Issernio ... Lilia
Abelkader Djeloulli ... Kader
... Mario
... José
Sami Zitouni ... Majid
... Olfa
Mohamed Benabdeslem ... Riadh
Hatika Karaoui ... Latifa
See full cast »
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Storyline

At the port of Sète, Mr. Slimani, a tired 60-year-old, drags himself toward a shipyard job that has become more and more difficult to cope with as the years go by. He is a divorced father who forces himself to stay close to his family despite the schisms and tensions that are easily sparked off and that financial difficulties make even more intense. He is going through a delicate period in his life and, recently, everything seems to make him feel useless: a failure. He wants to escape from it all and set up his own restaurant. However, it appears to be an unreachable dream given his meager, irregular salary that is not anywhere near enough to supply what he needs to realize his ambition. But he can still dream and talk about it with his family in particular. A family that gradually gives its support to this project, which comes to symbolize the means to a better life. Thanks to its ingeniousness and hard work, this dream soon becomes a reality...or almost.... Written by Venice Film Festival

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

shipyard | butt slap | scrap metal | family dinner | fish | See All (48) »

Taglines:

The Best French Film of the Year See more »

Genres:

Drama

Certificate:

Not Rated | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

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Details

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Language:

| |

Release Date:

12 December 2007 (France)  »

Also Known As:

The Secret of the Grain  »

Filming Locations:

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Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,864, 2 January 2009, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$86,356, 1 March 2009
See more on IMDbPro »

Company Credits

Production Co:

, ,  »
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Technical Specs

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Sound Mix:

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Color:

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

Shooting was supposed to start in the summer of 2005 but one of the leading actors was sick, which resulted 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 at least six 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 boat with heating systems for the actors and extras to remain comfortable between takes. See more »

Quotes

Julia: [talking to Slimane about her husband] Is that a family man ?
Serguei: Never there for his kid.
See more »

Connections

Featured in Maltin on Movies: Flipped (2010) See more »

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User Reviews

 
A major movie of our times
22 December 2007 | by – See all my reviews

Abdellatif Kechiche did very well with his previous movie "L'Esquive". But here we have even better. The story is simple : I'd say it is mostly about dignity, sacrifice and family love. The acting is brilliant. Habib Boufares is perfect, the young Hafsia Herzi is astounding, especially for the end of the movie. The actors are mostly non-professional people but the script is very well written and the characters are well defined, so this "amateurism" does great and helps the audience's immersion. The cinematography is very special (but never disturbing), with a lot of very close close-ups. The camera is "natural" as with Casavettes, but not "drunk", it is not a pain to watch and you don't get sea sick. The whole movie reminded me the Italian neo-realism and also a little of Renoir. Some people mention Pialat. It's a quite long movie but you don't feel it while watching, you just realize it after.
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