‘Promised Sky’ review: Follow-up to ‘Under The Fig Trees’ opens Un Certain Regard

Dir: Erige Sehiri. France/Tunisia/Qatar. 2025. 95mins

Reflecting actual occasions, Promised Sky follows three Ivorian girls attempting to make a recent begin for themselves as sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia. The challenges they face are conveyed in an observant, involving drama that brings a sympathetic eye to these caught in limbo and hoping for a greater future. Erige Sehiri’s polished third movie casts a heat glow, and will have interaction arthouse audiences after opening Un Sure Regard.

A bittersweet celebration of endurance and sacrifice 

In her earlier options, documentary The Railway Males (2018) and drama Beneath The Fig Bushes (2021), Sehiri has sought to light up points of Tunisian life. Right here, she has collaborated with co-screenwriters Anna Ciennik and Malika Cecil Louati to discover the experiences of migrants from the Ivory Coast, and has additionally employed a satisfying combination {of professional} and non-professional actors.

Promised Sky begins with a second of concord, as three girls work collectively for the advantage of 4 year-old Kenza (Estelle Kenza Dogbo), a shipwreck survivor. Little is thought concerning the woman or the destiny of her dad and mom, and the ladies don’t belief the authorities to take correct care of the kid. Now she lies in a shower of soapy bubbles, as the ladies wash, care after which dress her. Marie (Aïssa Maiga) is a former journalist and pastor who has a residency allow after spending ten years within the nation. Jolie (Laetitia Ky) has the safety of being a scholar. Naney (Debora Christelle Lobe Naney) survives on her wits, pursuing all types of money-making schemes, however her three years in Tunisia have but to earn her any authorized standing. Her defiance is a power of character. “I’m not right here to return,” she declares. ”I’m right here to go ahead.”

The ladies share lodging that’s each shelter and refuge. Marie is the senior member of the trio, and one thing of a mom determine in the area people. A pacesetter within the the Church Of Perseverance, she dispenses meals, drugs and nappies, clever phrases and sound recommendation. Her place appears probably the most safe of the trio, however even she is susceptible in a rustic more and more ill-disposed in direction of its migrant inhabitants. There’s hazard on the streets and wild prejudices. Claims that migrants are “consuming individuals’s cats” has a well-known ring, A brutal police drive appear inclined to arrest first and ask questions afterwards. Expulsions have develop into commonplace.

Cinematographer Frida Marzouk, who additionally shot Sehiri’s Beneath The Fig Bushes, captures the fantastic thing about Tunisia, from the pearlescent glow of the skies as day begins to fade to the periwinkle hue of seas that may show so treacherous. Marie’s house is seen from a distance, the crumbling plasterwork talking of fading grandeur. The photographs are engaging, however the actuality is much from the promised land these three girls have sought.

Sehiri shapes the story across the particular person and collective challenges confronted by the ladies. There’s a recurring theme of moms and daughters, as Jolie faces household pressures to return residence to the Ivory Coast and Naney turns into more and more conscious of the valuable time she has misplaced with the daughter she was pressured to depart behind. Her promise that they are going to spend Christmas collectively has been incessantly made however by no means fulfilled. Marie’s maternal instincts are stirred by Kenza, however she realises the impossibility of merely claiming the kid as her personal.

Connections are the toughest factor to keep up of their state of affairs and but, regardless of setbacks, the ladies are at their strongest once they look after one another and unite. Promised Sky turns into a bittersweet celebration of endurance and sacrifice with notable newcomer Debora Lobe Naney giving a profitable efficiency as a vibrant spirit, decided to outlive the whole lot that life throws at her.