The Secret of the Grain

The Secret of the Grain is about Arabic people living in France, specifically Tunisians living in the seaport town of Sete. Slimani is a sixty-year-old man who is about to lose his job as a shipyard worker. He lives in a small room in a hotel where he is having an affair with the hotel’s owner. Divorced, he is estranged from his wife, though she always sends a plate of whatever she cooks. She is best known for her couscous and mullet, and we see a long sequence of a dinner featuring that dish at the wife’s house, with all the children, their spouses and their children--everyone but Slimani. It is a lively affair (though like much in the movie, we see too much of it). Slimani has an idea for a career change. He wants to buy an old boat that is about to be scrapped and turn it into a restaurant that will feature his wife’s couscous. He enlists the help of his mistress’s daughter, Rym; a beautiful 20-year-old who proves to be his greatest ally. His project gets caught in the local bureaucracy, so he has the idea of hosting a dinner for all the local officials who must approve the project on the newly remodeled boat. Things go well until one of Slimani’s sons flees the boat in his car to avoid a confrontation with a former mistress. Unfortunately, the couscous is in the trunk of his car. Slimani goes in search of him while his guests, unaware of the problem, cool their heels. In the meantime, Slimani’s mistress goes to make a massive pot of couscous and her daughter entertains the guests with some stunning belly dancing, the sensuality of which keeps everyone happily occupied for a good while. Things do not end well Slimani, but the film ends with the crowd enthralled with Rym’s dancing. (Like almost everything in the film, even this goes on too long.)

There is much to admire about this film—the richness of the familial relationships and the Arabic culture, the wonderful relationship of Slimani with Rym, the performances of all the actors, but most especially Hafsia Herzi as Rym. She is absolutely magnetic. But the writer/director, Abdel Kechiche, is so enamored of his characters that he can’t seem to tear away from them and lingers far too long on conversations. The film is two and half hours and feels it; it would have been fine at just less than two hours.

The characters speak of the difficulty of being outsiders in France, but it is difficult for us to sort out what is prejudice. Does Slimani’s loss of his job have to do with this ethnicity? Are local authorities making it difficult for him to start his restaurant bcause he’s Arabic?

A word about the title. The “grain” is couscous. There is no secret that I can discern. The French title was “la graine et le mullet,” which is simply the name of the dish that was to be served at the dinner. Why English distributors would come up with such a misleading title is beyond me.

This is an interesting film from a cultural perspective, highly regarded by critics, and it features a fine performance by Herzi, but I think it will be too slow for most folks.

Subtitle Alert: Persons speaking in foreign tongues.