Reviewed by Michael Edwards
Stars Habib Boufares, Hafsia Herzi, Farida Benkhetache,
Abdelhamid Aktouche, Bouraouia Marzouk, Alice Houris,
Leila D'Issernio, Olivier Loustau, Sabrina Ouazani
Written by Abdel Kechiche
Certification UK 15
Runtime 115 minutes
Directed by Abdel Kechiche
Another festival–circuit–tested arthouse release about rising from a tough downtrodden life to achieve your dreams, but this one comes with a twist. Rather than following the usual bright schoolkids trapped by the system, Couscous is about sixty–something dock worker Slimane Beiji. A Turkish immigrant in France, he has slaved hard over the years working in the shipyards but has found that as times have become harder his shifts have become shorter and he has gradually been forced out. After putting up some little resistance he decides that just because he is being forced to stop working in the docks it doesn't mean he has to give up on work entirely. And with that he sets out to achieve his dream: starting a restaurant-boat that sells couscous. OK, not exactly glamourous but we all need dreams right?
So, a film about the troubled life of hard–working immigrant communities but without the youthful vigour and fiery clashes with authority usually found in such offerings must be starting to sound a little dull. Frankly, it is. But more than that it is an incredibly painful film to watch. Scene after scene of Slimane in quiet thought, one mundane administrative setback after another (bank loans rejected, planning permission denied etc) and additional relationship traumas which for the most part simmer below the surface in a kind of resigned acceptance that nothing is ever perfect anyway. By about midway through the film I was already growing restless and it became a chore not to scream at this man "Why even think you could follow your dream if you're mostly going to sit around looking depressed?"
But then I started to think a little more. Was there really a need to make this the same story of a violent clash with the system? Was there a need to tell it at breakneck speed at centre it on a ballsy young kid ready to take on all comers? Then it dawned on me that the slow and frustrating pace of the film was actually an incredibly clever and subtle way of mirroring and thus conveying the slow and arduous grind that many people face to achieve their goals. The long scenes of concentration, the mundane scenes of disappointment and the mixture of derision and encouragement encountered from Slimanes peers all depict in a very real way the awkward reality of chasing your dreams.
Nonetheless long, uncomfortable and slow are not highly prized qualities in film. Intelligent and real this movie may be but entertaining it is not. I sighed in irritation at the many unhelpful people the hero encountered, winced uncomfortably at his misunderstanding peers and squirmed in my seat through some truly disturbing scenes that punctuated the banality of this piece. Perhaps a piece for appreciators of the hyperreal but certainly not a movie of universal appeal.