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The Secret of the Grain review
:. Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
:. Starring: Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi
:. Running Time: 2:41
:. Year: 2007
:. Country: France
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Set in Sète, a small port in the south of France, The Secret of the Grain chronicles the journey of Slimane (Habib Boufares), an old man who after being downsized out of a job decides to use his small savings to open a couscous restaurant on a junkyard boat. Helped by Rym (Hafsia Herzi), the daughter of his landlord/lover, we follow him through all of the steps involved in building his dream business, from working on the boat to the unavoidable administrative hassle - and if you were not aware, dealing with the French administration is like watching a Matthew McConaughey movie marathon strapped to your seat, with no chance for a quick escape.
What's remarkable about actor/writer/director Abdellatif Kechiche's (Blame It on Voltaire, Games of Love and Chance) third film is that immediately you're made an honorary new member of this North African family. Plunging us into the middle of various gatherings and meals with an uncompromising cinema-vérité approach, the film doesn't spare us anything, confronting us with raw emotions and giving us a strong sense of family ties without ever attempting to give us a back-story for these characters. What we know about them we learn from listening to real-life conversation and from the way they behave - just as if we were a new addition to their clan.
Time — and I mean running time — is the other element of realism, which used proportionally as a reflection of happens on screen, allows the film to conveys the characters' emotions to the audience. It is especially true in the final sequence, which shows in parallel the wait for the grain at the party and Slimane, whether he's riding his motorcycle on the freeway or chasing some stupid kids. The fact that these sequences are paced slowly allow us to feel the frustration of Slimane, his family and the guests (another scene involving a woman crying and doing similar work on the notion of authentic time becomes unbearable, successfully communicating to us the anger of the characters involved). Of course, emphasizing the time dimension of the narrative results in a film clocking at around 2 hours and 40 minutes, but this is one of the few examples of when you don't feel it — and trust me, I'm usually resistant to watching any piece of celluloid lasting more than 90 minutes.
What also makes The Secret of the Grain stand out from other tales tackling the theme of immigration in France is the fact it vehicles a positive message. Rather than focusing on the usual clichés — racism, violence in the projects, etc…, the film shows us people who love their country and want to make their mark without denying their origins. By not trying to make them just look like the victims of the enduring unfair French system and offering an authentic portrait of flawed individuals instead, Mr. Kechiche breaks his characters away from stereotypes. And these stereotypes are clearly pointed out as the source of most problems of integration, as once they disappear their culture is embraced — hence the final scene on the boat where food, alcohol, music and dance slowly but surely help make racial barriers fall.
One thing that bothers me though, and chances are that you won't read about this anywhere, mostly because most critics agree to only embracing this film, is that you are forced to accept that Slimane's family, friends and lovers are all ready to drop everything to help him achieve his dream. Not that I'm cynical about human beings, but the fact is that despite being told once that he is a good man, what we see of him isn't really so charismatic as to move mountains. Slimane is a tired old man of a few words. He seems to be constantly affected, can't provide financial support to his family and can't perform in bed. There are even hints, through one of his womanizing sons, that he might have been a womanizer as well, which might explain why he no longer lives with his wife. This certainly doesn't make The Secret of the Grain a flawless masterpiece, nor does it keep it from being a great film — and the cast, most particularly the charming and bubbling Hafsia Herzi, aren't strangers to this achievement.
Fred Thom
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