The movie “Promised Sky” begins with three women bathing a young girl, Kenza (Estelle Kenza Dogbo). From the questions they ask — about the name of her school, about the boat she was in that flipped over — it becomes clear that none of the adults is her mother. Rather, Kenza is a migrant in Tunisia and the three of them have recently taken her into the home they share in Tunis, instead of turning her over to the authorities. Each woman has come from sub-Saharan Africa and lives in a state of uncertainty herself.
Naney (Debora Lobe Naney) has been in the country for three years and had hoped to scrape together enough money for her teenage daughter to join her from the Ivory Coast; lacking a formal job, she engages in various small-time schemes with her friend Foued (Foued Zaazaa). Marie (Aïssa Maïga), who once worked as journalist, has become the pastor of an evangelical church; she harbors money from immigrant parishioners who cannot open bank accounts. Ostensibly the best situated is Jolie (Laetitia Ky), who has papers to study in Tunisia to become an engineer. But she struggles with classes that are often taught in Arabic, not French. Her father, who sends Marie money for Jolie from afar, is justifiably concerned that the police are indiscriminate about roundups.
The French-Tunisian director Erige Sehiri dramatizes these events without inflection or hand-holding; the screenplay (by Sehiri, Anna Ciennik and Malika Cécile Louati) is restrained in explaining the social context. “Promised Sky” clearly draws on some documentary elements (for instance, Sehiri met the nonprofessional actress who plays Naney in the course of her research). There is much to be said for her unsensationalistic approach, and for its specificity of detail, even if splitting the narrative three ways means that each of these stories feels shortchanged.
Promised Sky Not rated. In French and Arabic, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters.
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