The Secret of the Grain is a saga of the immigrant experience and a packed 151 minutes of diverse storylines and themes that could have each been a film on their own.
Slimane Beiji is a Tunisian immigrant in the French port city of Sète. His large family consists of two units: his ex-wife Souad, with whom he has many children, and his current partner Latifa who own a run-down hotel where Slimani lives. Slimani gets fired from his shipyard job and is pushed by the children from his first marriage to return to Tunisia, where he can lead a quiet life. But Rym, his current partner’s daughter, convinces him that he can still be happy in France if he pursues his dream: to open a restaurant on a boat he owns that would serve his ex-wife’s unique couscous with fish recipe. Slimani chooses to rekindle his immigrant dream.
It’s a beautiful and rich slice-of-life film about immigrant life in Southern France. Slimani’s charachter is based on the filmmaker’s father.
"[Director] Kechiche digs a good story out of the flux, and, in the movie's final forty minutes, the suspense is terrific."
— David Denby
In southern France, a Franco-Arabic shipyard worker along with his partner's daughter pursues his dream of opening a restaurant.
Venice
3 wins, 1 nomination
Spirit Awards
1 nomination
European Film Awards
1 win
César Awards
4 wins, 1 nomination
"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."
— Elisabeth Lequeret