The Secret of the Grain

The Secret of the Grain is a touching and resoundingly humanistic story set in the rustic port of Sete in southeastern France. Slimane has worked in the same shipyard job for over 35 years, when his growing dissatisfaction prompts him to try to open his own restaurant. His dream seems unbelievable, but his contagious conviction and persistence work their way into the hearts of his loyal but dispersed family; the four children from his first marriage, his ex-wife, current girlfriend and her bright, outspoken daughter, Rym (played to great acclaim by the stunning newcomer Hafsia Herzi). A grand film about ordinary people, The Secret of the Grain is a deliciously slow-burning drama about fate, food and family.

“The depth of Mr. Kechiche’s humanism and his subtle insights into the political dimensions of ordinary experience link his film to the great works of late-period Neo-Realism, even if his anarchic methods have more in common with those of a post-’60s skeptical realist like Mike Leigh than with the old Italian masters. “The Secret of the Grain” is in some ways the descendant of a movie like “Rocco and His Brothers,” Luchino Visconti’s long, gloriously novelistic 1960 melodrama about a family of migrants that travels from southern Italy to work in the factories of the north....

It will leave you stunned and sated, having savored an intimate and sumptuous epic of elation and defeat, jealousy and tenderness, life and death, grain and fish.“
(A. O. Scott, NY Times)

AWARDS / FILM FESTIVALS
VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2007
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2008
SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2008
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2008
CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2008
CITY OF LIGHTS, CITY OF ANGELS – COLCOA 2008
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE, BEST ACTRESS, YOUNG CINEMA AWARD &
FIPRESCI CRITICS’ AWARD / VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2007
BEST PICTURE, DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY, & ACTRESS / 2008 CÉSAR AWARDS
FIPRESCI CRITICS’ AWARD / EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY AWARDS 2008