| Notes | Criterion Collection Blu-ray edition
The winner of four César awards, including best picture and director, Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain is a stirring drama 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 portside restaurant specializing in his ex-wife’s couscous and fish, the extended clan’s passions and problems explode, 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.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION
High-definition digital master, approved by director Abdellatif Kechiche, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
New video interview with Kechiche
Sueur, Kechiche’s extended reedit of the climactic belly-dancing sequence, featuring a new video introduction by the director
New video interview with film scholar Ludovic Cortade
Excerpt from a 20 heures television interview with Kechiche and actress Hafsia Herzi
Video interviews with Herzi, actress Bouraouïa Marzouk, and the film’s musicians
Theatrical trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Wesley Morris
New cover by Luba Lukova |
