A pathetic melodrama of an exile – Today Morocco

The second feature film “La Mer au loin” by Franco-Moroccan Saïd Hamich Benlarbi (the only Moroccan film) entered the official competition of the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival (FIFM) on Sunday December 1st. Highly applauded by the public, the film is a decade-long story that begins in 1990 and ends on the eve of a new millennium.

Presented as part of the official competition of the 21st edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival, the film “La Mer au loin” by Franco-Moroccan Saïd Hamich Benlarbi received a warm welcome during its screening, Sunday December 1, at the Convention center. Touching and moving, the film is a fresco, the story of a decade which begins in 1990 and ends on the eve of a new millennium. In all, a moving melodrama of an exile. “In exile there is something inexplicable and unfathomable. And so I wanted to deal with the feeling of exile and make the viewer feel this melancholy of exile. The idea is to paint the portrait of an exile and to see the intimate complexity of this situation,” Saïd Hamich Benlarbi tells ALM about his film. Through his work, the director explores raï music, his source of inspiration. “I grew up with my older brothers in the 90s always listening to raï. It’s very festive and melancholic music at the same time. And it was really something powerful that could define exile. And raï, in the 90s, was extremely important for the North African community,” he explains.
The film brings together North African and French actors like the Moroccan actor Ayoub Gretaa who plays the main role. “It took me a while to find him because I needed an actor who was physically very comfortable in his body to evolve over ten years with dance scenes, etc. But above all, I wanted someone who played with their sensitivity and emotion, who was comfortable playing in silence, with their gaze. I was then told about Ayoub Gretaa. He had exactly the look and physique I was looking for,” he says.
The film brings together other names, namely Omar Boulakirba, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin and others. For the director, the secondary characters are extremely important in the film. “The main character played by Ayoub Gritaa must compose himself in relation to secondary characters. Through them he makes his initiatory journey in the film. So it was important for the secondary characters to all be very strong and charismatic,” he notes. Screened in preview at Cannes 2024 as part of Critics’ Week, the film tells the story of 27-year-old Nour.
He emigrated clandestinely from Morocco to Marseille. With his friends, he lives in small-scale trafficking and leads a marginal and festive life… But his meeting with Serge, a charismatic and unpredictable cop, and his wife Noémie, will turn his life upside down. From 1990 to 2000, Nour loves, grows old and clings to her dreams.