The film “The Sea in the Distance” by Saeed Himmish Ben Arabi was selected for Critics’ Week

The film “La Mer au Loin” by French-Moroccan director Said Himmich Ben Larbi was selected for a special screening, at the 63rd Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival, scheduled from May 14 to 25, 2024. The director signs his second feature film. The film tells the story of Nour, 27 years old, She is an illegal immigrant living in Marseille in the 1990s, and her role is played by the Moroccan comedian Ayoub Jarita. The main character lives on small-scale trafficking, until he meets Serge, a police officer whose actions are unpredictable, and whose actions will turn his life upside down. Ten years later, Nour clings to her dreams that were destroyed by exile.

The director describes his film as “a mural, the story of a decade that begins in 1990 and ends on the eve of the new millennium.” Here, the experience of exile is addressed “in an intimate and political way,” questioning a certain dimension of isolation and “destructive melancholy.”

Said Himmich Ben Larbi, a graduate of École Femès and laureate of the Lagardère Foundation, doubled his collaborations with filmmakers such as Leila Bouzid, Rachel Lange, Philippe Faucon, Nabil Ayouch, Meriem Ben Embarek, Clément Cogiteur and Faouzi Ben Saïdi, before moving behind the camera as a director. . In 2018, he released his first film, “Retour à Bollène,” which was nominated for the Louis Deluc Prize in its category.

In 2021, his short film “Le Départ” was selected in nearly a hundred film festivals around the world. He won twenty-seven awards, then was nominated for the 2022 César Award.