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Winner of four Cesar awards, including best picture and director, Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain is a stirring story 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 port-side restaurant specializing in his ex-wife’s fish couscous, the extended clan’s passions and problems explode in riveting drama, 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.

"The Secret of the Grain" (the French title actually translates to "The Seed and the Mullet") isn't a film that fits into an easy compartment. It's part extensive family yarn, shot in fly on the wall fashion. It's also about a man in between two women and two lives. It could be described as a North African "Big Night." And yet, the last act, where Kechiche slows down the action so that it feels like real time (in order that the audience feel the long, long wait of the characters), it becomes a tragicomedy. It's as messy as life and it's glorious.

Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Cast: Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi, Farida Benkhetache
Country: France
Genre: Drama

BD50, 2xDVD9 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 02:34:32 | 45.8 Gb, 15.3 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Francais
Subtitles: English

Extras:

• Abdellatif Kechiche - an interview with the French director, recorded exclusively for Criterion, in which he talks about his film, his career as a filmmaker, some of the changes he was forced to make to the film after his father passed away, etc. In French, with optional English subtitles. (13 min, 1080p).

• Sueur - a reedit of the final scene in the film (a belly-dancing sequence), with an introduction by director Abdellatif Kechiche. In French, with optional English subtitles. (46 min, 1080p).

• 20 heures - an excerpt from an episode of the French television series 20 heures featuring interviews with director Abdellatif Kechiche, actress Hafsia Herzi, and resident of the port city of Sete, the location for The Secret of the Grain, as they celebrate the film's multiple awards at the 2008 Cesars. In French, with optional English subtitles. (8 min, 1080i).

• Ludovic Cortade - French film scholar Ludovic Cortade, author of Le cinema de l'immobilite, discuses the style and message of The Secret of the Grain. In French, with optional English subtitles. (22 min, 1080p).

• Hafsia Herzi - young French actress Hafsia Herzi, who plays Rym, discusses her character and the making of The Secret of the Grain. In French, with optional English subtitles. (15 min, 1080i).

• Bouraouia Marzouk - an interview with French-Tunisian actress Bouraouia Marzouk who talks about her past and role in The Secret of the Grain. In French, with optional English subtitles. (12 min, 1080i).

• Musicians - an interview with the musicians from The Secret of the Grain. In French, with optional English subtitles. (16 min, 1080i).

• Trailer - the original theatrical trailer for the film. In French, with optional English subtitles. (3 min, 1080i).

• Booklet - a 16-page illustrated booklet containing Wesley Morris' essay "No Secrets" (the author is a film critic at the Boston Globe).