Nigel Andrews' discusses Abdel Kechiche's (right) The Grain of Life aka The Grain and the Mullet, in competition at the Venice Film Festival, in the Financial Times:
"… [Made] by a Tunisian-born Frenchman, [the film] was reportedly rejected by Cannes at three hours and still holds out at two and a half in Venice. But it is the closest we have come to great cinema. A day after the press show, it topped the critics' stars-and-bars chart in the daily trade magazine, displacing Brian de Palma's Redacted, already praised on these pages.
"Khechiche [sic] made a wonderful little-seen film called L'Esquive — an Eric Rohmer-style comedy acted by gifted immigrants and pieds blancs — and specialises in raising everyday reality to a poetic pitch. In The Grain and the Mullet, a title that in light of the film's story surely hints at the loaves and fishes miracle (allowing for a Koran-raised artist's scriptural crossover), a Muslim father threatened with job loss in a French fishing town tries to save his family by opening a floating restaurant."
L'Esquive was the surprise best film winner at the 2004 Césars, defeating strong contenders Les Choristes, A Very Long Engagement, and Kings and Queen. Kechiche also received the best director and best screenplay (with Ghalia Lacroix) awards.
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