A One Mann’s Movies review of “Promised Sky” (From the 2025 London Film Festival). (2025, 3.5*, ’12A’).
Original title: Promis le ciel.
With the appalling resurgence of fascism across the Western World and, with it, the intolerance towards immigration, it was inevitable that this year’s LFF would reflect that facet of life. Last year, we had the wonderful “Io Capitano” covering the journey of two boys from Dakar to Europe. Later this week, I will get to see “Dreamers” set in a UK Immigration centre. But here with “Promised Sky” we are in the backstreets of Tunisia, one of the many hinterlands along the migration route.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
As the political pressure against immigration in Tunisia rises, three Ivorian woman have their lives thrown into upheaval, not helped by the arrival of an orphaned girl.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (This film has not yet been rated by the BBFC but I can’t immediately think of any content that would prevent it getting a ’12A’ certificate in the UK. There is some implied sexual activity, but nothing shown.)
Talent:
Starring: Aïssa Maïga, Laetitia Ky, Debora Lobe Naney, Mohamed Grayaâ, Foued Zaazaa, Estelle Kenza Dpgbo.
Directed by: Erige Sehiri.
Written by: Anna Ciennik, Malika Cécile Louati & Erige Sehiri.
Running Time: 1h 32m.
Summary:
Positives:
- An intelligent film that shows rather than tells.
- A topical story that reflects on the challenges of an authoritarian state.
- Terrific lead performances.
Negatives:
- The film’s ending is weak and unsatisfying.
Full Review of “Promised Sky”:
No faffing about with the story.
I really warmed to the storytelling in this film. We start with a well-judged shot of young Kenza (Estelle Kenza Dpgbo) literally keeping her head above water: in this case, the soapy bathtub of the three women in their Tunis apartment. With a wonderful ‘show don’t tell’ approach, we learn that the young girl has just survived an horrific ‘small boat’ incident and is now orphaned and in the care of these three women. How? It’s never disclosed and doesn’t need to be.
But it is quickly made clear that what they *should* do is turn the girl in to the authorities as an illegal immigrant, since having her in the house at all is putting their own fragile residency in the country at risk.
All of this is framed against the rise of anti-immigrant sentiments. In the Tunisian version of life, ‘immigrants’ are those foreigners in the country who have come from sub-Saharan countries like Cameroon or, in the case of these three women – Marie (Aïssa Maïga), Jolie (Laetitia Ky) and Naney (Debora Lobe Naney) – from the Ivory Coast.
The thing is that only one of them – the grifting Jolie – is there illegally. Marie is a pastor with the local church, but is in a dangerous position, caught in the gap of the renewal of her papers. Naney is an engineering student, studying at a Tunis college with valid papers. But the local police care little for papers when sweeping ‘foreign looking people’ off the streets at random, and church groups are being increasingly targeted as a hot-bed of subversive elements.
Colour and vibrancy.
And so, the film builds it’s tale of three individual struggles. Marie and Jolie’s relationship is the one explored in the most detail, with Jolie’s nefarious activities (in the more recent incident, the handling of black-market booze) coming into conflict with Marie’s strict religious rules. All of the time, there is an ongoing battle with their ever-suspicious landlord Ismaël (Mohamed Grayaâ) to make their lodgings habitable. The film builds all of this with a huge amount of colour and vibrancy that I loved.
Three stonking performances.
Anchoring all of the drama are three superb performances from the lead actresses – Aïssa Maïga, Laetitia Ky and Debora Lobe Naney. All get their moments to shine in the script with a prison cell meltdown by Naney being particularly powerful.
A weak ending.
Where the film unfortunately fell down for me with in its conclusion. It left me feeling flat and unsatisfied. I can’t say more for reasons of spoilers, so I have added some additional commentary in a “Spoiler Section” below the trailer.
Summary Thoughts:
I was on a 4*s for this film until – for me – the ending rather let it down. But THIS reminded me of why I love the London Film Festival so much: where do you get to see such uniquely DIFFERENT films like this?
Tickets for the London Film Festival showings on the 9th and 11th (2 screenings) October are currently sold out, but here is the booking web site to check for returns or other showings.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPDKAAqtPzY.
Spoiler Section:
Don’t read past this point if you’ve not seen the movie.
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NO, SERIOUSLY!
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That ending!
I found the ending dissatisfying primarily because we almost end up at a point we could have ended up at ten minutes into the film. Marie ‘does the right thing’, which heartbreakingly feels like very much the wrong thing, by turning Kenza in to the authorities: Lord knows what the adoption and/or extradition processes are for a young, vulnerable orphaned girl in Tunis. Jolie gives up her dream of a boat crossing and jumps on a bus heading home. And Naney seems to get her own way, accessing her father’s money directly and moving into student accommodation.
There seemed to be so many more dramatic ways that the story could have gone rather than this damp squib. At one point, the script teases us with some Christian soul giving over his ‘life savings’ to the trustworthy Marie to look after for him. With Jolie in the house and desperate for money, I expected that to come into play and for a final shot to be Jolie and Kenza heading off across the Mediterranean in a crowded boat. Surely something like that would have been a more satisfactory arc?
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