French-Tunisian filmmaker Erige Sehiri returns to the Croisette with her latest feature, Promised Sky, which has made its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. The trailer for the movie has been released ahead of its official screening, with global sales handled by Luxbox and French distribution by Jour2Fête.
Sehiri, whose acclaimed 2022 feature Under the Fig Trees was part of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and later selected as Tunisia’s submission for the 2023 Academy Awards, brings a poignant narrative centered on migration, womanhood, and resilience in her new work.
Set in Tunisia, Promised Sky follows Marie, an Ivorian pastor and former journalist who has spent the last decade in the North African country. Her modest home becomes a sanctuary for two women: Naney, a young mother pursuing a better future, and Jolie, an ambitious student determined to lift her family out of hardship. Their fragile sense of unity is tested with the arrival of a little orphan girl, sparking tensions that mirror the broader societal unrest brewing outside their walls.
Co-written by Sehiri, Anna Ciennik, and Malika Cécile Louati, the screenplay delicately weaves personal drama with the pressing realities of migration and identity in contemporary Tunisia.
Speaking about the film’s social undercurrents, Sehiri—herself a Tunisian—expressed frustration with the country’s growing hostility toward migrants. “We act as if all of us weren’t living on the same continent, as if all of us weren’t Africans,” she said. Originally not intended as a political statement, the movie evolved to reflect Tunisia’s escalating migration tensions, including widespread arrests and crackdowns.
“We began to ask ourselves how to breathe these tensions into our story without turning our characters into outdated, reductive stereotypes,” Sehiri explained. “We wanted to see these women live their lives, in spite of everything.”
The film’s striking visuals are captured by cinematographer Frida Marzouk, known for her work on Blue Is the Warmest Color and Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias. The ensemble cast features Aïssa Maiga, Debora Lobe Naney, Laetitia Ky, Estelle Kenza Dogbo, Foued Zaazaa, Mohamed Grayaa, and Touré Blamassi.
Promised Sky is produced by Didar Domehri for Maneki Films and Erige Sehiri for Henia Production, with co-production by Canal+. The movie is made in association with Mad Solutions and Pathé Touch Afrique, and backed by an array of international partners including TV5 Monde, the Tunisian Ministry of Cultural Affairs, CNC (France), Institut Français, the Doha Film Institute, and the Red Sea Fund, among others.
With Promised Sky, Sehiri offers a powerful, humanistic lens on the migrant experience in Tunisia—an urgent story told with compassion and cinematic grace.
