Promised Sky: Film Africa 2025 review
Immigration is a hot-button topic that is always in the news, so I really appreciate films that make people see it from a different perspective and have more empathy for migrants, like Promised Sky.
Erige Sehiri‘s film follows three Ivorian women who have immigrated to Tunisia in search of a better life and are facing their own individual struggles. Marie (Aissa Maiga) is a pastor who has to lie low as the police investigate churches, accusing pastors of organising boat crossings.
She has two others living in her house. There’s Naney (Deborah Lobe Naney), a wheeler-dealer who tries all sorts of schemes and enterprises to raise money to cross the Mediterranean, but she’s been there for three years (while her daughter is back home), and doesn’t have much to show for it. Then there’s Jolie (Laetitia Ky), an engineering student who is struggling to learn as her classes are taught in Arabic rather than French.
Their lives are complicated further when a little girl named Kenza (Estelle Kenza Dogbo) arrives. A sunken boat survivor without family or papers, Kenza becomes part of this found family while Marie figures out what to do with her.
Promised Sky is a quietly compelling film that tells three interesting stories. I came away feeling educated about a new culture. I learned about this tension between Tunisians and sub-Saharan Africans (who are often subjected to police checks and rough treatment) and the shortage of certain foods, like sugar.
All four of the leading performances are solid, and Egbo is absolutely adorable, but the story I cared about the most was Naney’s. She’s the most desperate; she hasn’t seen her daughter since she left for Tunisia three years ago, and she has made no progress – no jobs, no money, no documents. She gives a dispirited speech towards the end that’s really moving.
Overall, Promised Sky is a poignant and powerful film about the migrant experience in Tunisia.
Showing at Film Africa 2025 in London on Monday 17th November. No release date yet