The themes tackled in director Abdellatif Kechiche's slice-of-life drama (infidelity, relationship conflict and the quest for a better existence) are pure soap opera, but there's a real intelligence at work here. At 60 years old, Arab shipbuilder Slimane (Habib Boufares) is made redundant from his job in the French port of Sète. Fearing he has little to leave his extended family of grown-up children, he takes a gamble by opening a restaurant on a renovated boat. But before the first dish is served Slimane will have to reconcile his fractured family and overcome his nagging sense of failure. Boufares's performance in the lead is a snapshot of uncommunicative exhaustion backed up by quiet dignity; yet it's the energetic supporting cast that captures the imagination as enjoyably protracted dinner scenes let them chatter incessantly about everything from potty training to speaking Arabic in the bedroom. It's through these deceptively simple sequences that Kechiche's script offers an implicit commentary on Franco-Arab identity and the casual racism endured by immigrants who want nothing more than to better themselves.

In southern France, a Franco-Arabic shipyard worker along with his partner's daughter pursues his dream of opening a restaurant.