Exile and the friction between dreams and reality are the touchstones for Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s a which, like his previous film , highlights the experiences of the north-west African community in France. There are picaresque and romance elements to this colourful and often poignant decade-spanning tale of a Moroccan migrant’s life in Marseille, although the producer-turned-director also leans too heavily on soap opera-style coincidences in places. The Jokers Films will distribute Across The Sea in France after its debut in the Special Screenings section of Cannes Un Certain Regard and festival appearances further afield may follow for this ambitious work with a novelistic sweep.
While its characters and plotting might be uneven in places, its heart never misses a beat. Beginning in 1990, Nour (Ayoub Gretaa, making his film debut after several television roles) is still in his late twenties with the hopefulness of youth on his side. We see him making ends meet with a gang of fellow illegal emigres via a petty criminal operation.
Benlarbi generates the sense of a group who find strength in their common roots, emphasised by the rhythmic music which accompanies the celebratory events that pepper the film. This vibrancy is further enhanced by the generally warm colour palette, periodically giving way to cooler blues, but always captured in painterly fashion by cinematographer Tom Harari. The time period, in an era before the ubiquity of mobile phones, brings home the acute .