It’s quite remarkable how much this sucks you in to the world of these people and their plight. A humanistic epic coloured by an eclectic array of faces, voices and interactions which all feel achingly genuine. The working class backdrop and how passions for food, flavour and dance ignites so many sequences really won me over. It reminded me of Mike Leigh, in that I could imagine an entire lifetime happening to these characters before and after the events in the film. I loved spending time with this family and wanted so much for them to succeed. Did Hafsia Herzi become a superstar after this or what?

Watched on Artificial Eye blu-ray