Nadir Moknèche's debut feature Le harem de Mme Osmane was released nearly 25 years ago, and the director followed that film with the Belgian co-production Viva Laldjérie, which played at the 2005 edition of IFF Rotterdam; since then, he's directed several solid features (Lola Pater, Goodbye Morocco, Délice Paloma) en route to his latest effort, You Promised Me the Sea (French: L'air de la mer rend libre). Moknèche's new film was one of the selections for this year's BFI Flare, where it screened alongside several other strong examples of francophone cinema including Chloé Robichaud's Days of Happiness, Edith Chapin's Sex is Comedy: The Revolution of Intimacy Coordinators, Jérémy Piette's The Blue Shelter, and Paul B. Preciado's Orlando, My Political Biography.
Moknèche's previous film, the aforementioned Lola Pater—which starred the legendary Fanny Ardant and featured a juicy role for the excellent Belgian actress Lucie Debay—hinged on a parent who'd long kept a secret from their adult son, and in You Promised Me the Sea this scenario is inverted as twentysomething butcher Saïd (Youssouf Abi-Ayad) goes to great lengths to hide his homosexuality from his mother and father. Saïd's efforts to keep a lid on his clandestine life extend as far as acquiescing to an arranged marriage to Hadjira (Kenza Fortas), a rather reserved young woman who has recently completed a stint in prison. Given their respective circumstances, there's a sense that the marriage may prove useful to both Hadjira and Saïd—that said, they still have to go through the experience of living together.
Hadjira and Saïd aren't particularly fond of each other to begin with, and the pair soon settle into an unhappy domesticity in which Hadjira becomes increasingly isolated as the distant Saïd spends his evenings arranging hookups via a dating app. It's clear that Hadjira, who is unaware of her husband's real sexual identity, would like to make a go of the marriage and start a family, but Saïd is both physically and emotionally absent, and the couple make little progress. As someone who was jailed largely on account of her ill-judged relationship with a drug dealer, Hadjira views the situation as a chance for a fresh start, but Saïd has no interest in becoming someone else and isn't looking to embrace a heterosexual relationship—although he does at least try to maintain the façade, lest his parents discover the truth.
With You Promised Me the Sea, Nadir Moknèche has created a subtle, engaging tale, one in which the simplicity of the setup belies the effectiveness of the end product. The film is underpinned by a wonderfully sympathetic turn from Kenza Fortas, an actress previously best known for both playing the title role in 2018's Shéhérazade and her substantial part in Cédric Jimenez's exemplary action thriller The Stronghold. Youssouf Abi-Ayad is also very good, and he has a tougher task on his hands as he vies to make the slippery Saïd a likeable, relatable character. The two leads are backed by a fine supporting cast, of which Zahia Dehar and the fine, stalwart Zinedine Soualem are the most memorable performers. As with Lola Pater, Moknèche here presents the viewer with very little that is new, but there can be few complaints when a film is as well-crafted as this.
Darren Arnold
Images: Pyramide Films
