# The Secret of the Grain
**The Secret of the Grain** (French: *La Graine et le Mulet*) is a 2007 French drama directed by [Abdellatif Kechiche](https://www.edgepedia.org/abdellatif-kechiche) about Slimane Beiji, a Tunisian immigrant in the port city of Sète who, after losing his shipyard job, tries to open a couscous restaurant on a converted boat.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/103433.html) • [2](https://metropolefilms.com/index.php/filmlink?id=c3d228f1-f6a2-4788-81a0-9a5bc1a29698&lang=fr) The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 64th [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival) and four [César Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/cesar-awards) in 2008, including Best Film and Best Director.[3](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-61185/secrets-tournage/) • [4](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/26620/the-secret-of-the-grain)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *La Graine et le Mulet*; directed and co-written by Abdellatif Kechiche[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/103433.html) |
| Release | France, 12 December 2007; United States, 24 December 2008 (IFC Films)[5](https://www.yumpu.com/fr/document/view/18836336/la-graine-et-le-mulet-artishoc) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009066-la_graine_et_le_mulet?sort=fresh) |
| Running time | 151 minutes per the Cinémathèque française and IFFR; 154 minutes per Métropole Films and Independent Film Company[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/103433.html) • [2](https://metropolefilms.com/index.php/filmlink?id=c3d228f1-f6a2-4788-81a0-9a5bc1a29698&lang=fr) |
| Principal cast | Habib Boufares (Slimane), Hafsia Herzi (Rym), Bouraouïa Marzouk (Souad), Farida Benkhetache (Karima)[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/103433.html) |
| Major awards | Venice Special Jury Prize (tied with *I'm Not There*), FIPRESCI Prize, Marcello Mastroianni Award (Herzi), Prix Louis Delluc 2007; four Césars 2008[3](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-61185/secrets-tournage/) • [4](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/26620/the-secret-of-the-grain) |
| Production | Producer Claude Berri; companies Hirsch, Pathé Renn Productions, France 2 Cinéma; cinematography Lubomir Bakchev[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/103433.html) |
| Critical reception | Metacritic 83/100 from 16 reviews; Rotten Tomatoes 92% from 52 reviews[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-secret-of-the-grain/) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009066-la_graine_et_le_mulet?sort=fresh) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and title
Slimane Beiji, a divorced man in his sixties who has worked for 35 years at the shipyards of Sète, is dismissed and decides to use his severance to convert an old fishing boat into a restaurant specializing in couscous, with the fish couscous of his ex-wife Souad as the signature dish.[2](https://metropolefilms.com/index.php/filmlink?id=c3d228f1-f6a2-4788-81a0-9a5bc1a29698&lang=fr) • [8](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2008/films/la-graine-et-le-mulet) He faces skeptical bankers, government workers, and sons who urge him to return to his home country; his main supporter is Rym, the teenage daughter of his mistress and landlady Latifa, who helps him pursue the venture.[2](https://metropolefilms.com/index.php/filmlink?id=c3d228f1-f6a2-4788-81a0-9a5bc1a29698&lang=fr) • [8](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2008/films/la-graine-et-le-mulet)
The action turns on two meals: the family couscous Souad prepares on Sundays, with its communal rituals, and a second, problematic feast on the boat meant to win over the local population and authorities and affirm the family's success.[9](https://www.histoire-immigration.fr/hommes-migrations/article/la-graine-et-le-mulet) The title reads on two levels. Fish couscous is a Tunisian specialty and the mullet (mulet) is a fish commonly used in it; critics have also read the title metaphorically, the grain standing for the descendants and new generation (Rym and Riadh among them) and the mullet, a tough and obstinate fish, for the old patriarch himself.[9](https://www.histoire-immigration.fr/hommes-migrations/article/la-graine-et-le-mulet)
## Cast and production
Kechiche cast non-professional and unknown actors portraying working-class lives.[10](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/images/FG_secret%20of%20the%20grain.pdf) Habib Boufares, a construction workmate of Kechiche's father, plays Slimane; Hafsia Herzi, a newcomer chosen at a screen test, plays Rym and won both the Marcello Mastroianni Award at Venice and the César for Most Promising Actress.[3](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-61185/secrets-tournage/) • [11](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2024/08/16/hafsia-herzi-l-insatiable-du-cinema-francais_6282770_4500055.html)
**A long gestation.** Kechiche wrote the first version of the screenplay in the mid-1990s, before his first feature *La Faute à Voltaire* (2001). At that time he planned to give the lead role to his father, fill the other roles with family members, and shoot in Nice, where he grew up. He set the project aside to make *La Faute à Voltaire* and *L'Esquive* (2004); his father died during the editing of *L'Esquive*. When producer Claude Berri offered to back the film, Kechiche, no longer willing to shoot in Nice, cast Mustapha Adouani, who fell ill after a few months of rehearsals and died on 14 December 2006. Kechiche then contacted Boufares, and filming began in the second half of 2005 in Sète.[3](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-61185/secrets-tournage/) The closing credits open with a dedication to Kechiche's father.[10](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/images/FG_secret%20of%20the%20grain.pdf)
Kechiche described his starting point as a popular fantasy, the myth of people who "made it" by escaping precarious employment to start their own business, treated with irony through the narrative freedom of a tale, while allowing digressions into the events of everyday family life.[3](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-61185/secrets-tournage/)
## Style
The film runs about two and a half hours and lets scenes continue without immediate consequence for the plot, including extended dinner-table conversations and a roughly 20-minute stretch devoted to a large family meal.[10](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/images/FG_secret%20of%20the%20grain.pdf) • [12](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-secret-of-the-grain-1) Kechiche shoots in hand-held close-ups of faces, food, and bodies, a physical immediacy that conveys verisimilitude; the Washington Post described the result as documentary-like but messier in design, with dialogue that loops in circles.[10](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/images/FG_secret%20of%20the%20grain.pdf) • [13](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2009/02/06/this-grain-only-simmers/a9ceef2a-240f-449f-a06f-ed75b048af86/) The narrative is framed by Souad's Sunday meal and the restaurant's opening night, and builds to a suspenseful climax around the opening and Rym's belly dancing.[10](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/images/FG_secret%20of%20the%20grain.pdf) The film is in French, Arabic, and Russian.[13](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2009/02/06/this-grain-only-simmers/a9ceef2a-240f-449f-a06f-ed75b048af86/)
## Place in Kechiche's work and in French cinema
Like the main characters of the film, Kechiche was born in Tunis and raised in France, and *The Secret of the Grain* is considered a central work of post-beur cinema, films about immigrants from the former North African colonies and the second generation who retain an ethnic identity while integrating beyond Paris.[10](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/images/FG_secret%20of%20the%20grain.pdf) Reviewing the film at [Rotterdam](https://www.edgepedia.org/rotterdam), IFFR's critic called Kechiche the most interesting chronicler of the life of North African emigrants in Europe.[8](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2008/films/la-graine-et-le-mulet) It was his third feature, following *La Faute à Voltaire* (2001) and *L'Esquive* (2004).[10](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/images/FG_secret%20of%20the%20grain.pdf)
## Reception and awards
At the 64th Venice Film Festival in 2007 the film received the Special Jury Prize, shared with [Todd Haynes](https://www.edgepedia.org/todd-haynes)'s *I'm Not There*, the FIPRESCI (international critics) Prize, and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Hafsia Herzi; it also won the 2007 Prix Louis Delluc, a French award sometimes likened to the Goncourt of cinema.[3](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-61185/secrets-tournage/) • [14](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487419/awards/) At the 2008 César Awards it won Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Most Promising Actress (Herzi), with a nomination for Best Editing.[4](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/26620/the-secret-of-the-grain) • [14](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487419/awards/) Other honors include the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics prize, a Bronze Muhr at the Dubai International Film Festival, and a Critics Award at the American French Film Festival.[4](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/26620/the-secret-of-the-grain)
Critical response was strongly positive. Metacritic recorded a score of 83 based on 16 reviews, and Rotten Tomatoes 92 percent from 52 reviews, with a critics consensus calling it "a complex portrait of an immigrant family" and "a sprawling, intimate film with many fine performances".[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-secret-of-the-grain/) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009066-la_graine_et_le_mulet?sort=fresh) A.O. Scott in The New York Times described an "intimate and sumptuous epic" in which a family chronicle and four decades of French social and economic history are recapitulated as a dinner; Variety, by contrast, called it an overlong, dramatically unbalanced picture.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-secret-of-the-grain/) The film's final act, which cuts to black before the restaurant's fate is resolved, drew both praise for suspense and comment on its abruptness.[13](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2009/02/06/this-grain-only-simmers/a9ceef2a-240f-449f-a06f-ed75b048af86/)
## References
1. [La Graine et le Mulet, Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/103433.html)
2. [The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le Mulet), Métropole Films](https://metropolefilms.com/index.php/filmlink?id=c3d228f1-f6a2-4788-81a0-9a5bc1a29698&lang=fr)
3. [Anecdotes du film La Graine et le Mulet, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-61185/secrets-tournage/)
4. [The Secret of the Grain, Unifrance](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/26620/the-secret-of-the-grain)
5. [La Graine et le Mulet, Artishoc program notes](https://www.yumpu.com/fr/document/view/18836336/la-graine-et-le-mulet-artishoc)
6. [The Secret of the Grain, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009066-la_graine_et_le_mulet?sort=fresh)
7. [The Secret of the Grain, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-secret-of-the-grain/)
8. [La Graine et le Mulet, International Film Festival Rotterdam](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2008/films/la-graine-et-le-mulet)
9. [La Graine et le Mulet, Musée de l'histoire de l'immigration](https://www.histoire-immigration.fr/hommes-migrations/article/la-graine-et-le-mulet)
10. [The Secret of the Grain/La Graine et le Mulet (2008), University of Michigan Film Studies notes](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/f/fc/images/FG_secret%20of%20the%20grain.pdf)
11. [Hafsia Herzi, l'insatiable du cinéma français, Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/m-le-mag/article/2024/08/16/hafsia-herzi-l-insatiable-du-cinema-francais_6282770_4500055.html)
12. [The Secret of the Grain review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-secret-of-the-grain-1)
13. [This 'Grain' Only Simmers, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2009/02/06/this-grain-only-simmers/a9ceef2a-240f-449f-a06f-ed75b048af86/)
14. [The Secret of the Grain (2007) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487419/awards/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2006 to 2009*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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