Tunisian film in competition at Morocco film festival

Tunisian film “Promised Sky’ is competing for the Golden Star at Morocco’s Marrakech International Film Festival, one of the most prestigious worldwide.

Already awarded the “Un Certain Regard” prize at the Cannes festival, the film portrays the daily lives of three Ivorian women in Tunis.

Director Erige Sehiri says she wanted to capture a moment in life where one “can be in an in-between space, between sub-Saharan Africa and Europe”.

She says the title, “Promised Sky” comes from many things.

“From all the promises we make, that governments make to their citizens, that a mother makes to her child, that a pastor makes to their congregation. These are all the divine or non-divine promises we make to one another."

Sehiri grew up in the French city of Lyon and her personal experience as the child of migrants deeply influenced the creation of this film.

"My parents immigrated to France in the 1970s, and we’ve always questioned how we, Maghrebis, Arabs, Muslims, were treated in the West, in Europe,” she says.

She decided to reverse the roles and look at things from the other side.

“What if we asked how we treat people who come to our country, especially after so many political and xenophobic speeches," she says.

French-Senegalese actor Aïssa Maïga also grew up in France and plays a Muslim woman who has become a “pastor” in an underground evangelical church in Tunis, constantly threatened by police raids.

“The film is full of love. There is humour, there is poetry. It's not at all miserable. It truly allows us to meet these people, and I believe it changes the way we look at them," she says.

The Marrakech Festival awards ceremony takes place on Saturday 6 December.

“Promised Sky” is also in the official competition at this month’s Carthage Film Days in Tunis. It will  be released in cinemas in Tunisia at the end of the festival.