19/05/2024 - CANNES 2024: Saïd Hamich Benlarbi depicts the eventful and soulful journey of a young Maghrebi man seeking his fortune in France

Divided into three chapters, each named after one of the story’s main protagonists, Across the Sea [+see also:
trailer
interview: Saïd Hamich Benlarbi
film profile] has premiered in the Special Screenings section of the 77th Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week. This decade-long account of a young Moroccan seeking his fortune in France is Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s second feature, following his 2018 debut, Return to Bollene [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

In that film, the director – himself French-Moroccan – explored another young person being torn between his Maghrebi roots, his childhood upbringing in the southeast of France (in an increasingly right-wing area), his relocation to Abu Dhabi and his relationship with an American girlfriend. While it was both lauded and awarded, some critics did find the film a tad rhapsodic and opined that it only scratched an interesting surface. In this respect, Across the Sea hits back with a vengeance. Well written, well directed, well cast and well acted are all easily applicable attributes as the viewer is taken on the journey of Nour and his times.

Fittingly and naturally, Nour (impressively portrayed by big-screen newcomer Ayoub Gretaa) gets the first chapter, sub-headed “1990”. We find him in Marseille together with a carefree gang of compatriots who also entered illegally – think of a Fellini “Vitelloni” pack with Nino Rota’s soundtrack turned into rich raï rhythms – living from day to day, usually through assorted petty criminality. Inevitably, such shenanigans will come with a price, and one day, the happy-go-lucky band gets busted. One is forcefully reinstated into her family, another opts for a marriage of convenience, a third finds a local boyfriend, a fourth gets a job on a farm. Nour finds himself alone, hapless, paperless and penniless, literally out on the streets, down and out, and in the rain.

“Serge” is chapter two, named after the tough, rugged cop who busted the gang and gave Nour an unexpected break. Now, under the subhead “1992”, he does so again, taking him home to his wife and son, giving him hot soup and a clean bed, and fixing him up with a room at the top of a drag-queen club. Serge (the ever-watchable Grégoire Colin) has a yen for same-sex company, a preference that his wife, the attractive Noémie (Anna Mouglalis, rarely better), accepts with stoic pragmatism.

“Noémie” is also the name of chapter three in Nour’s eventful and soulful journey from exile to existence, which includes a homecoming scene, revealing additional onion layers of his whereabouts on that other side “across the sea”, sweet as well as bitter. Doubtlessly and deeply, this humanistic writer-director cares for his characters, their fates and their fortunes, which ring both true to life and at times a bit too good to be true – as sometimes the complexities of life indeed can be.

Across the Sea was produced by Barny Production (France) with co-production by Mont Fleuri Production (Morocco) and Tarantula Belgique. Its sales are handled by Indie Sales.