Worth the wait

The otherwise captivating French immigrant drama La Graine et le mulet is hampered by slow pacing

ÉMIGRÉ UNEASE: La Graine et le mulet

by HILLARY BRENHOUSE

Suffocating close-ups of a Franco-Arab family eating with their chops open (the lens captures every grain of couscous floating around inside every mouth) and an overabundance of drawn-out scenes are not—I imagine—what won writer-director Abdellatif Kechiche four César Awards and a Golden Lion nomination for La Graine et le mulet.

But while it may be somewhat of a prolonged exercise in indulgence, Graine is an otherwise engaging and true to life drama about a Maghrebi émigré’s attempt to support his nearest and dearest.

The leisurely paced story is set in Sete, a dreary port town in southern France that’s home to a substantial immigrant population and thick with latent racism. A tired and care-worn divorcé, 61-year-old Slimane (Habib Boufares), is let go from the shipyard after 35 years of service. Behind in alimony payments to his ex-wife Souad (Bouraouia Marzouk), he lives in a hotel owned by his lover Latifa (Hatika Karoui) along with her doting adolescent daughter Rym (a dazzling Hafsia Herzi, who took home a load of prizes for the part).

Most screen time is devoted to family squabbling—Slimane and Souad’s kids and other kin gather on Sundays to down mom’s fish couscous and bicker. Soon, our patriarchal protag decides to invest his buyout money in his own harbour-side restaurant and supportive relations rally together to renovate a wrecked tug in preparation for opening night. Social commentary on the unease of the émigré generation runs deep.

Plainly inspired by Tunisian-born, French-raised Kechiche’s own remembrances (he tried to finance the film in 1995 and intended for his own father to star), this is as natural and unaffected as they come. Like his critically acclaimed second movie, l’Esquive, a mostly non-professional ensemble cast serves out extraordinary, seemingly spontaneous performances and a documentary feel (and look) holds sway.

Needlessly protracted scenes, though, dilute the flick’s emotional bite and temper the tension that’s meant to take hold at its end. Even the most powerful harangues stretch way past their point of impact.

A surfeit of dinner table conversation and the finale, a non-stop belly dance, are in particular need of additional pruning; what Graine calls for is a proper editor.

La Graine et le mulet opens
this Friday, Aug. 1