“Promised Sky”, an interview with director Erige Sehiri

May 19, 2025

Erige Sehiri opened the Un Certain Regard section of the 78th Cannes Film Festival with "Promised Sky (Promis le ciel)"

"Promised Sky", an interview with director Erige Sehiri Bénédicte Prot

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French-Tunisian director and producer Erige Sehiri opened the Un Certain Regard section of the 78th Cannes Film Festival with “Promised Sky (Promis le ciel)“, a colourful and energetic tale on three Sub-Saharan women of different ages, backgrounds and situations – a pastor, a student, and an exiled mother, played by Aïssa Maïga, Laetitia Ky and newcomer Déborah Christelle Naney, respectively – stuck in Tunis on their way to a (hypothetical) better life.

“Promised Sky” is Sehiri‘s second feature film after “Under the Fig Trees“, screened in Cannes in 2022, at the Directors’ Fortnight, and chosen as the Tunisian submission for the Academy Award for the Best International Feature Film. Before that, she made and produced, through her company Henia, various Tunisian author-driven documentaries, including her breakout feature documentary, “Railway Men” (2018).

On the situation of in-betweenness of the three main protagonists we meet in Tunis

“I felt like there were many stories about migration, but we were missing a link in the chain: we have stories about people arriving in Europe, migrants struggling in Europe, but we don’t have the stories from before, when they are stopped somewhere, stopped or stuck, depending on the character. Now there is a barrier in Europe, so North Africa becomes this stop.“

On the female solidarity and community that shines since the very first minutes

“The idea is that what you arrive in the foreign country, you can live with people with whom you would never live in your own country. That’s what happens here: Marie the pastor is welcoming the student and she welcoming a child, and she’s welcoming Naney, a girl who’s doing shady businesses. In real life, if they were from the same country but from different social classes, their paths probably wouldn’t cross so much, but because they’re in a foreign country, where it’s difficult, they become a family.“

On the presence of Kenza, the little isolated girl whose very origins are difficult to trace

“A few months before the shoot, when I was going to Sunday services for my research and spending time with the community, I met this little six-year-old girl, and one day, I went back to the church and I asked where she was, because I didn’t see her anymore (…), and I was told that she crossed over with her mother, and that they died in the Mediterranean Sea, that unfortunately they didn’t make it. I was devastated and I started thinking about the children, who didn’t choose that. And then I heard of survivors, children survivors, who don’t know where their parents are. For me, it asks the question of who is responsible for these children: is it the state they’re in, even though the state is against them as a community, or is it the community itself.“

On the energetic, thoughtful, and colourful cinematography

I have the best DOP, Frida Marzouk, she’s a friend, and we talked a lot about the colours and when I went to Naney’s place, her room in real life, and she opened her closet, she had a lot of pink, and she had the pink dress that is in the film, and I said ‘Oh my God, that’s the colour of Naney!’ And the blue of course is the sea, the sky, and all these promises of something else, And those became the two colours of the film: blue and pink.”

Plot

Promised Sky follows three Ivorian women trying to make a fresh start for themselves as sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia. The challenges they face are conveyed in an observant, involving drama that brings a sympathetic eye to those caught in limbo and hoping for a better future.

Written by: Bénédicte Prot

Railway Men Under the Fig Trees

Guest

Erige Sehiri

Film

Promised sky

Festival

Festival de Cannes

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