Kechiche had long wanted to make his latest film, which is dedicated to his father and set in the Mediterranean port of Sète, where an aging Arab patriarch struggles to keep the peace within his family and to make ends meet. Complicating his task are his wife and mistress and his impulsive decision to open a restaurant when he loses his job. Like Cassavetes’ Opening Night, The Secret of the Grain is a richly characterized ensemble film that draws its engaging drama from the struggles of a disparate group to cooperate even when they realize that the unstable center does not hold. The figures of the elderly immigrant father and his mistress’ daughter are particularly important in the film as the vivid embodiments of two poles of the contemporary Franco-Arab experience.