Couscous [2007] [DVD]

I first heard of this film while staying with friends in Paris. It made a huge splash over there. They were raving about it. In France it is known as "La Graine et le Mulet", a title which far better suits this timeless parable. The story is expertly crafted and deceptively simple. Like the greatest stories, this one is archetypal.

Slimane is an old, poor and patriarchal North African divorcee. He repairs boats for a living until he's fired, at which point he decides to pursue his life-long ambition of opening a couscous restaurant on a boat, the chef being his ex-wife. Assisted by his partner's precocious daughter, Slimane sets about jumping the various hurdles that lay in his path. Out of this scenario, the writer-director wrings buckets of drama.

Essentially "Couscous" is a domestic drama, but that dry description hardly seems to do it justice. Slimane is like the titular character in "The Old Man and the Sea". He faces insurmountable odds but he quietly perseveres to the bitter end. He's no angel: he's stubborn and set in his ways. But he's all the more convincingly human for it, and you can't help but care for the man. In fact all of the characters are such engaging archetypes. This is, in no small measure, helped by the fact that all of the performances are faultlessly truthful and compelling.

This is a huge achievement by the writer/director. The camera, which never draws attention to itself, watches while the drama unfolds, it seems, totally spontaneously. It appears so improvised, but it can't be, the story is so perfectly crafted.

The storytelling is incredibly understated and the tension creeps up on you effortlessly and by surprise. In fact, I may've hit upon why the description "domestic drama" doesn't do this film justice. Because domestic dramas are so often bereft of. . . drama. And by drama I mean conflict and tension. They tend to confuse drama for sentiment. But this film, whilst it takes its time and never rushes, will slowly suck you in and have you glued to the screen until the very end.

Even if you usually don't go for this kind of thing, I would strongly recommend to anyone to give this film a shot.

Other reviewers have given the storyline, but to add - this is a story of a man content with his lot, but who suddenly finds the world has changed for him when he loses his work. He is separated from his wife and lives in a run-down hotel, where the owner is his lover and her daughter adores him as a father. Losing his job makes him wretched. He has nothing to leave to his children and he feels he is no longer a man.

He is told of a boat from which he could earn money by dismantling it, but comes to an idea to re-fit the boat to make a couscous restaurant. More than ably supported by the 'step-daughter' we go through the stages of him trying to get all the necessary permissions and bank loan, which prove difficult. His solution a party for those whom he needs to influence.

Couscous is a dish the wife of the main character excels at and she cooks it for the party, but worryingly it becomes lost!

The lover and her daughter go through an interesting dialgue, where the daughter seeks to persuade her mother to come to the party where they know they her lover's family she knows does not accept her and finally they do and eventually win through.

The film was an interesting look at the way families operate and the way things differ from what is said to you and about you. It has its weak points, but I could overlook these as I found it totally engaging, which I did not expect, as it runs 2.5 hours

A detailed and at times very touching movie that takes us into the inner lives of immigrants in France. We share their hopes, their fears, their animosities as they seek to make a living in a host society that keeps them on the edge, at best patronising them ('at least they don't want to put up a mosque'). Each of the characters comes alive: Slimane, now too old to work, dogged by ill luck, but still determined to succeed in his new enterprise; the many strong and very vocal women who surround him; the young men with a roving eye; the elders of the community who pull together to help Slimane. Above all, this is a film about real people, employing a naturalistic dialogue that sounds improvised but clearly isn't - artistry of a very high order. My only complaint is that the film was a bit long, and spoilt by the rather gratuitous (and lengthy) dancing towards the end, somewhat reminiscent of a similar, but funnier, episode at Basil Fawlty's gourmet night.