“What’s the problem with your mother?” “Either I introduce my girlfriend to her and it kills her, or my girlfriend will leave me.” With his feature debut, Spices and Lies, which proved to be a firm favourite among the audience at the Saint-Jean-De-Luz Festival and is released in French movie theatres on 10 December by Pyramide, Amine Adjina cleverly revisits the classic subject of a young man being torn between the two most important women in his life, by exploring the toing and froing caused by a dual cultural allegiance: to his parents’ home country (Algeria in this case) and to France, where he’s trying to blossom both professionally and emotionally. Through incidents verging on comedy, the first-time filmmaker astutely depicts a potential clash of values incorporating many different themes (integration, exile, traditions, memories, family, social shame, concealment, lies and so on).

"You’re going out with me, not with my family – why are you hiding me?" Put under pressure by his girlfriend Léa (Clara Bretheau), with whom he’s about to purchase the Le Baratin restaurant, where they both work, young chef Mehdi (Younès Boucif) has been in dire straits ever since his sister almost revealed the truth ("My brother is keeping us hidden; he’s ashamed of us") during an unexpected visit. Far from living in Algeria, as Mehdi claims, their mother, Fatima (Malika Zerrouki), is preparing a party at her place in Lyon to celebrate her nephew’s circumcision.

Backed into a corner by Léa, who threatens to leave him if he doesn’t introduce her, Mehdi finds himself between a rock and a hard place because his mum, who’s an expert in emotional blackmail, is in poor health and has sacrificed so much for her children, dreams of only one thing: for him to marry a girl of Algerian heritage. In order to get himself out of this pickle and to enable him to continue compartmentalising his life, Mehdi implements a risky plan: to get another woman, Souhila (a fantastic turn by Hiam Abbass), the manager of a popular bar called Le Mostaganem, to play the role of his mother. But his ruse will cause even more complications…

By way of some entertaining misadventures stemming from Souhila’s exuberant and unpredictable personality, Spices and Lies (the screenplay for which was penned by the director himself) nimbly deals with the question of identity crises while giving off a movingly melancholic odour under the surface, amplified by the music composed by Amine Bouhafa. By emphasising culinary symbolism, the helmer also manages to lend a very concrete dimension to all of the elements inherent in this duality (past versus future, one’s roots versus a new country, family versus romantic prospects), which must be combined in order to allow us to calmly move forwards with our lives. It’s a recipe for life that also entails a certain requirement: "When we love, we must be brave."

Spices and Lies was produced by Ex Nihilo and co-produced by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, and it is being sold internationally by Pyramide.