Isn't this the movie that reduced Keira Knightley to tears and reaffirmed her faith in cinema? The Secret of the Grain (La graine et le mulet) is an intense tale about food, survival and the dance between men and women, all told through the experiences of one Franco-Tunisian family living in the French Mediterranean port city of Sete.

Slimane (Habib Boufares) is a worn-out man of 60 who has worked at the local shipyard for 35 years. He's being forced out of his job; on a visit to his daughter's house, his son-in-law says that the shipyard owners no longer want French workers when they can hire immigrants for less money. Ouch. That's a bitter little moment that underlines how Slimane is caught forever between two cultures, fitting into neither.

At that daughter's house, we get a glimpse of Slimane's complicated personal life. He has an ex-wife, Souad (Bouraouia Marzouk) who complains about Slimane's late alimony payments. He and Souad have several adult children, and a couple of grandchildren, but Slimane lives with his girlfriend, Latifa (Hatika Karaoui), and her teenaged daughter, Rym. Rym (Hafsia Herzi) regards Slimane as her father, and she feels very close to him.

There is the expected amount of animosity between Slimane's two families.

Souad, the ex-wife, prepares a huge family meal of fish couscous every weekend. The gathering of all her children for this meal is the centre of family activity.

Meanwhile, Slimane quietly decides to use his severance pay to open a restaurant on an old boat. The signature dish will be fish couscous -- made by Souad. Slimane must next handle the red tape of any commercial enterprise, as he tries to get loan arrangers, uninterested city planners and smug waterfront officials to see the beauty of his plan. His biggest helper in all this is Rym, who believes passionately in the restaurant. And in this chance to get ahead. They fix up the boat and decide to invite all the bureaucrats to a dinner, hoping to win their favour. For this, Slimane needs the help of everyone in his family, with Souad cooking the couscous and his children waiting tables. This upsets Slimane's girlfriend, but Rym convinces her to come to the dinner to show moral support.

The Secret of the Grain makes its point through the intimacy of family interaction. Extended scenes of family meals, with all the conversation, the politics and the minutiae of the meal included, draw you into the centre of the characters' lives. The film manages to be both an homage to women and a heartbreaking cultural commentary, and it's intense.

It's also far too long. The Secret of the Grain needs two and a half hours to arrive at a frustrating ending, but maybe that's the point -- to feel what Slimane's family feels as their planning goes awry. Or maybe it's about feeling what the impatient diners feel at Slimane's restaurant when the food doesn't materialize quickly enough. Either way, it's distressing.

The Secret of the Grain has won oodles of awards, including four Cesars, which are the equivalent of the Oscar in France. Not surprisingly, one of those awards was for Hafsia Herzi, who won Most Promising Actress for her portrayal of the headstrong Rym. The film is in French with English subtitles.

(This film is rated 14-A)

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