‘La graine’
Posted on November 21, 2008
Filed Under East meets West | Leave a Comment
 This warm, magical film is about North African immigrants in the south of France. ‘La graine’ is their French word for couscous, rolled semolina wheat granules which the characters eat with fish every Sunday when they come together for the extended family meal. It is the dish around which the plot thickens in this film. Sixty-year-old Tunisian immigrant Slimane is let go after 35 years of work as a dockworker. With his severance pay, he dreams of turning an old freighter into a restaurant with his ex-wife’s renowned mullet couscous as the speciality. This does not sit well with his mistress, who hoped he would put the money into renovating her rundown ho tel. Meanwhile, the white financial officers and city bureaucrats place one hurdle after another be fore Slimane. But the mistress’ daughter Rym steps up to make the project succeed for her cherished ‘stepfather’, and organizes a din ner party to seduce potential investors and the city’s big shots.
Genre: Drama Director: Abdellatif Kechiche Cast: Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi, Sami Zitouni
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