An African high school teacher flees his war-torn country for a fresh start in France. Yet his new life is far from easy --- he is both plagued by the difficulty of being a refugee and by an awful event that happened as he fled his home. In trying to overcome these troubles, he finds a connection with a French woman who offers a roof for him and his family.
While the story plays a bit with the notion of the supernatural, the spirit foregrounded here is more tangible: an ominous sense of restlessness and curtailed dreams.
For all its empathy, Haroun’s latest can be dramatically stiff. The dialogue of his script often sounds like exegesis, with key events bursting into the story like dramatic illustrations of what seems foreordained. Yet this stolid narrative approach feels appropriate for a film that is as much testimony as it is drama.
The habitual calm and gentleness of Mahamat Saleh Haroun’s film-making here has a sharp edge and an overtly political point – as well as a flourish of violent destruction and despair that blindsided me.
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WHAT ARE CRITICS SAYING?
The New York Times by Aisha Harris
Screen International by David D'Arcy
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw