A Criterion Feast
November 21, 2012
Film Info
- France
- 2007
- 154 minutes
- Color
- 1.85:1
- Arabic, French
- Spine #527
The winner of four César awards, including best picture and director, Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain is a stirring drama about the daily joys and struggles of a bustling French-Arab family. It has the texture of a documentary but a classic, almost Shakespearean structure: when patriarch Slimane acts on his wish to open a portside restaurant specializing in his ex-wife’s couscous and fish, the extended clan’s passions and problems explode, leading to an engrossing, suspenseful climax. With sensitivity and grit, The Secret of the Grain celebrates the role food plays in family life and gets to the core of contemporary immigrant experience.
Cast
| Slimane | Habib Boufares |
| Rym | Hafsia Herzi |
| Karima | Faridah Benkhetache |
| Hamid | Abdelhamid Aktouche |
| Julia | Alice Houri |
| Souad | Bouraouïa Marzouk |
| Sergueï | Cyril Favre |
| Lilia | Leïla D’issernio |
| Majid | Sami Zitouni |
Credits
| Director | Abdellatif Kechiche |
| Original scenario | Abdellatif Kechiche |
| Adaptation and dialogue | Abdellatif Kechiche and Ghalya Lacroix |
| Producer | Claude Berri |
| Executive producer | Pierre Grunstein |
| Associate producer | Nathalie Rheims |
| Production and postproduction manager | Benoît Pilot |
| Cinematography | Lubomir Bakchev |
| Sound engineer | Nicolas Waschkowski |
| Sound mixer | Jean-Paul Hurier |
| Editing | Ghalya Lacroix and Camille Toubkis |
| Production design | Benoît Barouh |
Disc Features
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION
- High-definition digital master, approved by director Abdellatif Kechiche (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- New video interview with Kechiche
- Sueur, Kechiche’s extended reedit of the climactic belly-dancing sequence, featuring a new video introduction by the director
- New video interview with film scholar Ludovic Cortade
- Excerpt from a 20 heures television interview with Kechiche and actress Hafsia Herzi
- Video interviews with Herzi, actress Bouraouïa Marzouk, and the film’s musicians
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Wesley Morris
Current Posts
Photo Galleries
Film Essays
The Secret of the Grain: No Secrets
By July 27, 2010
Americans got The Secret of the Grain. In France, they got La graine et le mulet (The Grain . . . Read more »
Film Essays
The Secret of the Grain: No Secrets
By July 27, 2010
Americans got The Secret of the Grain. In France, they got La graine et le mulet (The Grain . . . Read more »
Photo Galleries
Press Notes
Press Notes: The Secret of the Grain
August 09, 2010
Stuart Galbraith eats up Abdellatif Kechiche’s delectable The Secret of the Grain, calling it . . . Read more »
News
Hellman, Kechiche, More Headed to Venice
July 29, 2010
Whenever a major international film festival announces its lineup, we keep our eyes peeled for . . . Read more »
Film Essays
The Secret of the Grain: No Secrets
By July 27, 2010
Americans got The Secret of the Grain. In France, they got La graine et le mulet (The Grain . . . Read more »
