Promised Sky

Opening Un Certain Regard at Cannes, rising French-Tunisian auteur Erige Sehiri’s drama is a lively, poignant story of women creating community.

Living together in a house in Tunis, three Ivorian women of different ages do what they can to survive in a country in which Sub-Saharan Africans comprise a distrusted minority. Marie (Aïssa Maïga: Mood Indigo, MIFF 2013), a pastor and one-time journalist, treats refugee Naney and dream-filled student Jolie as found family, offering them a safe haven in a tense climate. Their household soon gains a fourth member through four-year-old orphan Kenza, apparently the survivor of a boat carrying undocumented asylum seekers that was shipwrecked on the Mediterranean coast. Distrusting Tunisian authorities to do what’s best for her, the trio decide to look after her as foster parents. But, without any legal documentation supporting her presence in the house, Kenza’s situation – as well as those of her new carers – remains uncertain and perilous.

Erige Sehiri’s follow-up to the gorgeous Under the Fig Trees (MIFF 2022) explores and reflects on the experiences behind the significant but rarely acknowledged phenomenon of intra-African migration. Working once again with cinematographer Frida Marzouk, Sehiri marries dramatic realism with a strong political message, cementing her reputation as an African filmmaker to watch.

“Feels visually and texturally truthful … Sehiri approaches a neorealistic style in filming the happenstances of street life, dialing up her documentarian instincts.” – Variety