COUSCOUS
FDA Magazine Screening Invite
COUSCOUS
(LA GRAINE ET LE MULET) (CERT TBC)
A film by Abdellatif Kechiche
Special Jury Prize Best Actress (Hafsia Herzi) - Venice Film Festival 2007
WINNER – Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay & Best Female Newcomer for Hafsia Herzi
– CESARS AWARDS 2008
WINNER Abdellatif Kechiche - Prix Louis Delluc 2007
London Film Festival 2007
Starring
Hafsia Herzi, Habib Boufares, Faridah Benkhetache, Abdelhamid Aktouche
The FDA Magazine Press Show of LA GRAINE ET LA MULET will be held:
On Tuesday 25 March 2008
at 6.00pm for 6.30pm
at The Hospital, 24 Endell Street , London WC2H 9HQ
Germany, France / 2007 / 115 Mins / In French with English Subtitles
/ Colour / 1:1.85 / DOLBY SR
UK RELEASE DATE: 20 June 2008
Opening at selected West End Venues and selected cinemas nationwide
An Artificial Eye Release
Images are available on image.net
For further information please contact: press@artificial-eye.com
Artificial Eye Film Company, 20 - 22 Stukeley Street , London , WC2B 5LR
The city of Sète , on the harbour.
Mr. Beiji, a weary sixty years old, is still grinding it out at the shipyard, in a job that has become more painful as the years have worn on. A divorced head of family, he desperately tries to remain close to his loved-ones, a task made more difficult because of family break-ups and seething tensions which seem to be about to erupt, and which financial difficulties only exacerbate. In this delicate part of his life, it seems like everything contributes to his feeling of uselessness. He has carried the weight of what he sees as his failure for a long time and his only thought is to overcome it by founding his own business, a restaurant. But it isn't going to be easy. His income is insufficient and irregular, and falls far short of what he'll need to realize his ambition. That doesn't keep him from dreaming about it, talking about it, mostly to his family. That family is, little by little, drawn together around the plan, which has taken on the symbolic value of a quest for a better life.
Will the dream come true…?
“I began with a popular fantasy, the kind of story they like to tell about those who "made it," or in other words, those who escaped the modern slavery of a nowhere career path by starting their own businesses. And I wanted to treat it with a certain irony, unbridle the story in the way you can with a narrative tale. So this is an adventure story, one where the narration is closer to that of a tale, with all the digressions, suspensions, etc. that that implies, rather than an action film per-se”
- Abdellatif Kechiche
Born in Tunis , Abdellatif Kechiche started his career as a film and stage actor, before moving into film directing. His first theatrical role was in 1978 in Sans Titre by Garcia Lorca, directed by Muriel Channey. In 1984, he made his film-acting debut, taking the lead role in le Thé à la menthe by Abdelkrim Bahloul, and continued working as an actor both for theatre and cinema. In 1992, he played the lead in Bezness, by Nouri Bouzid, for which he won the award for Best Actor at both the Namur French-language Film Festival (1992) and the Damascus Intern ational Film Festival (1993). In 2000, Abdellatif Kechiche directed his first feature film, La Faute à Voltaire. Kechiche’s second film, the award winning LA GRAINE ET LE MULET has been an audience hit in France gaining over 483,454 admissions.
Couscous focusses on all the anti-Hollywood strategies that 'Third World film-making' is known for: the film is about a family, has no stars, probably non actors, no real narrative and doesn't fit into any of the accepted genres. However Couscous still manages to generate plenty of energy and interest, not least the finale, a belly dance performed by award winning actress Hafsia Herzi. The film undoubtedly attempts to draw attention away from recent events in the Arabic world, in order to explain, as if it really needed explaining anyway, that Arabs are just as human as the rest of us and have things like families, parties, crises, triumphs. Although the film was quite long I was still drawn into the very human face of this Arab family as Mister Beji decides to open a restaurant, leaving his dead end job in the shipyard behind but I wasn't particularly intrigued by what there is of the film's narrative, but by little vignettes such as the making of the couscous or the bellydance I felt sometimes that perhaps the director was slightly concerned about the exotic, stereotypical elements in Arab life. Maybe that's why the bellydance is enervating yet disconcerting, as if somehow a djinni, magic carpet or even some Ray Harryhausen-inspired effects might take over proceedings, might whisk us away to an Arab-style never never land and would that really be such a bad thing? Its as if the sinister, hooded, black-clad Moors a la El Cid are being explained away as Hollywoodisation but Kechiche perhaps strives for too great a sense of grainy cinematic realism as if that view of Arabs really needed to be counteracted. He might acknowledge that the exotic isn't such a bad thing after all and that his realism really only exists because that exoticism is its counterpoint.
Nevertheless Couscous is definitely a stimulating film.
COUSCOUS
(LA GRAINE ET LE MULET) (CERT TBC)
A film by Abdellatif Kechiche
Special Jury Prize Best Actress (Hafsia Herzi) - Venice Film Festival 2007
WINNER – Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay & Best Female Newcomer for Hafsia Herzi
– CESARS AWARDS 2008
WINNER Abdellatif Kechiche - Prix Louis Delluc 2007
London Film Festival 2007
Starring
Hafsia Herzi, Habib Boufares, Faridah Benkhetache, Abdelhamid Aktouche
The FDA Magazine Press Show of LA GRAINE ET LA MULET will be held:
On Tuesday 25 March 2008
at 6.00pm for 6.30pm
at The Hospital, 24 Endell Street , London WC2H 9HQ
Germany, France / 2007 / 115 Mins / In French with English Subtitles
/ Colour / 1:1.85 / DOLBY SR
UK RELEASE DATE: 20 June 2008
Opening at selected West End Venues and selected cinemas nationwide
An Artificial Eye Release
Images are available on image.net
For further information please contact: press@artificial-eye.com
Artificial Eye Film Company, 20 - 22 Stukeley Street , London , WC2B 5LR
The city of Sète , on the harbour.
Mr. Beiji, a weary sixty years old, is still grinding it out at the shipyard, in a job that has become more painful as the years have worn on. A divorced head of family, he desperately tries to remain close to his loved-ones, a task made more difficult because of family break-ups and seething tensions which seem to be about to erupt, and which financial difficulties only exacerbate. In this delicate part of his life, it seems like everything contributes to his feeling of uselessness. He has carried the weight of what he sees as his failure for a long time and his only thought is to overcome it by founding his own business, a restaurant. But it isn't going to be easy. His income is insufficient and irregular, and falls far short of what he'll need to realize his ambition. That doesn't keep him from dreaming about it, talking about it, mostly to his family. That family is, little by little, drawn together around the plan, which has taken on the symbolic value of a quest for a better life.
Will the dream come true…?
“I began with a popular fantasy, the kind of story they like to tell about those who "made it," or in other words, those who escaped the modern slavery of a nowhere career path by starting their own businesses. And I wanted to treat it with a certain irony, unbridle the story in the way you can with a narrative tale. So this is an adventure story, one where the narration is closer to that of a tale, with all the digressions, suspensions, etc. that that implies, rather than an action film per-se”
- Abdellatif Kechiche
Born in Tunis , Abdellatif Kechiche started his career as a film and stage actor, before moving into film directing. His first theatrical role was in 1978 in Sans Titre by Garcia Lorca, directed by Muriel Channey. In 1984, he made his film-acting debut, taking the lead role in le Thé à la menthe by Abdelkrim Bahloul, and continued working as an actor both for theatre and cinema. In 1992, he played the lead in Bezness, by Nouri Bouzid, for which he won the award for Best Actor at both the Namur French-language Film Festival (1992) and the Damascus Intern ational Film Festival (1993). In 2000, Abdellatif Kechiche directed his first feature film, La Faute à Voltaire. Kechiche’s second film, the award winning LA GRAINE ET LE MULET has been an audience hit in France gaining over 483,454 admissions.
Couscous focusses on all the anti-Hollywood strategies that 'Third World film-making' is known for: the film is about a family, has no stars, probably non actors, no real narrative and doesn't fit into any of the accepted genres. However Couscous still manages to generate plenty of energy and interest, not least the finale, a belly dance performed by award winning actress Hafsia Herzi. The film undoubtedly attempts to draw attention away from recent events in the Arabic world, in order to explain, as if it really needed explaining anyway, that Arabs are just as human as the rest of us and have things like families, parties, crises, triumphs. Although the film was quite long I was still drawn into the very human face of this Arab family as Mister Beji decides to open a restaurant, leaving his dead end job in the shipyard behind but I wasn't particularly intrigued by what there is of the film's narrative, but by little vignettes such as the making of the couscous or the bellydance I felt sometimes that perhaps the director was slightly concerned about the exotic, stereotypical elements in Arab life. Maybe that's why the bellydance is enervating yet disconcerting, as if somehow a djinni, magic carpet or even some Ray Harryhausen-inspired effects might take over proceedings, might whisk us away to an Arab-style never never land and would that really be such a bad thing? Its as if the sinister, hooded, black-clad Moors a la El Cid are being explained away as Hollywoodisation but Kechiche perhaps strives for too great a sense of grainy cinematic realism as if that view of Arabs really needed to be counteracted. He might acknowledge that the exotic isn't such a bad thing after all and that his realism really only exists because that exoticism is its counterpoint.
Nevertheless Couscous is definitely a stimulating film.
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