Before 2013’s controversial Blue is the Warmest Color, director Kechiche captivated French audiences and critics with this neo-neorealist film (“it begins like Ken Loach and ends like Tolstoy…”) about a 60-year-old Tunisian-immigrant displaced from his shipyard job who decides to invest his settlement money in a family-run restaurant. It won four French Césars, including Best Screenplay, Director and Picture, and ranked 3rd on the Times’ A.O. Scott’s Best Films of 2008.
