Tunisian film Promised Sky takes an unflinching look at undocumented individuals

Director Erige Sehiri hopes her Cannes release about the migrant experience will strike a chord with audiences worldwide

Promised Sky by Erige Sehiri is set in Tunis and follows an Ivorian pastor whose home becomes a shelter for migrants. Photo: Henia Production

What makes a film French, Tunisian or any other nationality? That is one question occupying the mind of Erige Sehiri, director of Promised Sky, which has just been unveiled at Cannes Film Festival.

“When you come to Cannes, you also represent a country,” Sehiri tells The National, speaking on the Unifrance terrace just yards from the buzzy Croisette. “It’s not just about the director.”

In this case, Promised Sky is being recognised as a Tunisian film, despite being a French-Tunisian co-production, with money from Qatar and support from the Doha Film Institute.

“I agree with that because it’s a Tunisian story, shot in Tunisia,” Sehiri continues. “It’s mainly Tunisian technicians and I’m a Tunisian director also. Marie, the film’s central character, is played by a French actress, Tunisian people are secondary characters and West Africans are main characters. But they all represent Tunisia!”

Sehiri herself was born and raised in France, after her Tunisian parents emigrated there.

The migrant experience is very much at the core of Promised Sky, a heartfelt, honest look at the undocumented. The story takes place in Tunis, following Marie (Aissa Maiga), an Ivorian pastor whose dilapidated home has become a shelter for others. Among them are young mother Naney (Debora Christelle Lobe Naney) and the resolute student Jolie (Laetitia Ky).

A former journalist, who brought a similar semi-documentary approach to her well-received 2021 film Under The Fig Trees, Sehiri says her own media connections led to the story.

“I had coffee with a journalist from Ivory Coast who was based in Tunis, and she worked at a small radio station. I didn’t have the idea of the film then. But we talked, and I said: ‘How do you make a living working in a radio station in Tunisia?’ And she said: ‘I have another job, as a pastor.’

"I didn’t even know it's a job. I didn’t even know a woman can be a pastor. No Tunisian goes to Evangelical churches, they’re not allowed.”

Co-writing with Anna Ciennik and Malika Cecile Louati, Sehiri was particularly inspired by the notion of "the other".

“In Tunisia, the communities of people coming from sub-Saharan countries, from North Africa, are called 'the Africans’.”

Promised Sky is an unflinching look at the concept and perceptions of 'the other'. Photo: Henia Production

Indeed, Marie’s landlord refers to her “African cake” when she’s baking, only to be told that he too is African. “It’s not necessarily a bad intention, but it’s something we say all the time, to say 'the other'. But we are the other," says Sehiri.

Sehiri began to think of the way fear surrounds stories of immigrants. “We hear that France will be invaded by African, Arabian immigrants and so on,” she says, pointing out that the statistics say otherwise. “Twenty per cent of immigrants from Africa migrate to Europe. Eighty per cent of them migrate within Africa from one country to another, and that also gives you another perspective. This is far away from the image that we get in Europe. It’s a global issue, how to treat migrants and how not to treat them.”

Bringing the film to Cannes, where it was selected to open the Un Certain Regard sidebar, a strand that features films directed by Hollywood stars Kristen Stewart and Scarlett Johansson this year, was also a huge honour.

From left, Laetitia Ky, director Erige Sehiri, Deborah Christelle Lobe Naney and Aissa Maiga at Cannes. EPA

“I feel that is the best thing that happened to the film,” Sehiri says. “It was unexpected.” It also puts her in good company, with fellow Tunisian directors Kaouther Ben Hania (who was in Cannes with Four Daughters) and Meryam Joobeur (whose film Who Do I Belong To played at the Berlinale).

Certainly, it’s been a phenomenal time for female filmmakers from her country. “I am part of the movement. I’m very happy seeing the reaction of the Arab media, which is not just about Tunisia but the whole region, how we portray ourselves, how we make films," Sehiri says. "It's really moving because I was born in France. I grew up there, and then suddenly I’m part of a movement from the Arab region.”

A fan of such naturalistic-leaning directors as Ken Loach, Andrea Arnold and Sean Baker, the Oscar-winning director of Anora, Sehiri is now plotting her next move.

“I have another project that I haven’t talked about at all. I really hope to do a triptych after Under the Fig Trees and Promised Sky. I would love to have a third film of people I found being stereotyped or invisible. And I’ll say it will be young male Arab characters," she says.

As for Promised Sky, how does she anticipate the reaction from those back home? “Hopefully, it will open their eyes a bit,” she smiles. “Just a bit.”

The Cannes Film Festival runs until Saturday