Couscous

A meandering French drama centred around an extended Franco-Arabic family in a run-down port city. Refreshingly, religion doesn't rear it's ugly head once. The film's far more concerned with social and familial relations. There's great joy in the lengthy dinner sequence where the numerous family members and their partners gather to eat, talk and bicker, but it also reveals the fractures within the family unit. The eldest son is a womaniser cheating on his fragile Russian wife, whose brother seems to take more care of their baby than either parent. The mother harbours resentment towards her ex-husband, and the aunt and her French husband don't really teach their son Arabic. In general the women are far more forceful personalities than the men. Slimane, the father, is a rather passive figure, especially compared to his abrasive daughter and the independent-minded daughter of his new partner. Nevertheless, despite all these differences the plot ultimately revolves around a sense of community, encompassing the family, fellow dock workers and the group of elderly exiles living at the hotel. It might not have a traditional happy ending but you're left with a vivid sense of this group of characters.