Across the Sea

Twenty-seven-year-old Nour has immigrated illegally to Marseille. Amongst his friends and vibrant community of fellow émigrés, Nour lives a marginal and carefree existence though he relies on petty criminality to get by.

However, after meeting Serge, a charismatic and unpredictable police officer, and his wife Noémie, Nour’s life is turned upside down. Hailed for its novelistic perspective, Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s second feature film takes us on a decade-long story across the 1990s as we watch Nour love, grow up, and cling to his dreams.

Taking the form of a triptych, Benlarbi’s moving epic goes from France to Morocco through its vivid and thrilling soundtrack of Raï music, whilst Tom Harari’s painterly camera captures a richly complex meditation on migration, exile, and disconnection.

Premiered at Semaine de la critique (Cannes 2024) and nominated for the The Queer Palm at Cannes.