Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno. 2017. France/Italy. Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. Screenplay by Kechiche, Ghalia Lacroix, from a book by François Bégaudeau. With Shaïn Boumédine, Salim Kechiouche, Ophélie Bau, Hafsia Herzi, Lou Luttiau, Alexia Chardard. DCP. In French, Arabic; English subtitles. 181 min.
Amin, an aspiring young screenwriter and filmmaker, returns from Paris to his hometown of Sète, on France’s Southern coast, to allow destiny (“mektoub”) to unfold in sun-soaked beaches and the euphoric darkness of nightclubs while shyly observing friends and nature around him. More than a story about spiritual enlightenment through unquenchable bodily pleasures, Abdellatif Kechiche’s magnum opus is an extraordinary portrayal of class, social, and racial tensions in the French-Arab world in the aftermath of the Gulf War.