La Graine et le Mullet

I went to the French Movie Festival tonight, and tonight’s movie was called La Graine et Le Mullet. It is about an Algerian family, who immigrated to France, and whose patriarch is trying to establish a couscous restaurant on a boat. The entire movie plunges the viewers deep into the layers of southern France’s society. Now that we are studying this region’s history, I pay particularly close attention to the mannerisms and the food, and the words that they use. I do not expect to become an expert of the Arabic language anytime soon, however I hope to learn a thing or two by the end of the semester.

For example, I wonder if the interactions between Europeans and the Ottoman Turks, or North Africans were always so strewn with varying levels of racism, distrust, and ignorance. The director of this movie was so skilled that watching the characters interact made one aware of all the spoken and unspoken aspects of communication. One could almost smell the delicious food, as well as the heavy pretension that the locals exuded. The patriarch Slimane, spent his whole life trying to better that of his children, ends up dying in the pursuit of happiness (no surprise here it is, after all a French movie). I wonder if Muslim conquerors faced the same disdain from their Christians subjects, or were they met with fear, and respect, as they held the power, or with time, did they, the subjects, learn to admire their ways, once they saw the liberal way they ruled. I cannot understand how people from regions that have always dealt with one another for centuries, on some level or another, still feel as though their land, their history, their customs, have remained untouched for as long as man can remember, and therefore things should remain the same. I do not understand how the majority choose to ignore a part of history because it is convenient, because it fits their definition of themselves. Most importantly, I do not understand why after so many milestones of knowledge have been achieved, ignorance still persists, as many continue to believe they stand above others.