Thursday 2 November will see the first clapperboard slam on La mer au loin [+leggi anche:
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trailer
intervista: Saïd Hamich Benlarbi
scheda film], Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s second directorial effort after Return to Bollène [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (nominated for the Best First Film Louis Delluc Award in 2018 and triumphant in the Bordeaux Independent Film Festival’s Contrebandes competition in 2017). Well-known as a producer (notably that of this year’s Cannes-screened films Hounds [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Faouzi Bensaïdi
scheda film] and Deserts [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Faouzi Bensaïdi
scheda film]), the director has assembled a cast composed of Ayoub Gretaa (a head-turner in the Moroccan series L'Maktoub), Anna Mouglalis (well-received in Happening [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Anamaria Vartolomei
scheda film] and the series Baron noir, to name just two, and hitting cinemas on 22 November in Spirit of Ecstasy [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Héléna Klotz
scheda film]) and Grégoire Colin (especially impressive, of late, in The Vourdalak [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Adrien Beau
scheda film] and Spirit of Ecstasy).

Written by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi, the story revolves around 27-year-old Nour who has emigrated to Marseille illegally. He and his friends get by on wheeling and dealing, and lead marginal but party-fuelled lives...  When he meets charismatic and unpredictable cop Serge, however, his world is turned upside down. From 1990 to the year 2000, Nour loves, grows older and holds onto his dreams…

Produced by Sophie Penson on behalf of Barney Production, in co-production with Belgium’s Tarantula and Morocco’s Mont Fleuri Production, La mer au loin has been pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+. Lkewise supported by the CNC (via an advance on receipts and the Images de la Diversité fund) and the South of France Region, the feature film will be shot in France and in Morocco with Tom Hariri (nominated for the 2022 César and Lumière awards in his speciality for Onoda – 10,000 Nights in the Jungle [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Arthur Harari
scheda film]) heading up photography. Distribution in France will be entrusted to The Jokers Films.

For the record, Barney Production are currently overseeing post-production on Camille Lugan’s Selon Joy.