527 The Secret of the Grain

[ShellOilJunior]

I'm really glad Criterion chose this one. I think it's a gem of a film. The characters are interesting and believable as is the dialogue. Plus, this film really got me into couscous.

I think Hafsia Herzi (Rym) is the scene stealer. She is magnificent throughout. Has anyone seen anything else she's been in?

[therewillbeblus]

Rewatched this after seeing Abdellatif Kechiche's subsequent films for context. While this film has more varied interests than what would become a more skewed obsession with the physical as the key to emotional elicitation, the scene at the end where Hafsia Herzi belly dances juxtaposed against her father's slippage into disorientation is indicative of his future visions. Her physical expression may be spectacle, but like Kechiche's other works it's audaciously both exploitative and empowering, with Herz breathing life into the room and arguably becoming the most authentically participatory individual in that moment. She is indisputably present, not pining after an intangible goal in the streets, and dancing for herself as a celebration of life. It's a beautiful scene, where sexual connotations via voyeurism can coexist with animated existential bliss.