Promised Heaven: a relevant look at the question of exile (critique)
Erige Sehiri’s powerful new film talks about the difficulty of finding one’s place in a country that is not one’s own, despite a racism that knows neither borders nor latitude, even within the African continent.
We discovered the Franco-Tunisian Erige Sehiri in 2022 with Sous les figues, her very first fiction feature film, behind closed doors in the open air which recounted the daily life and the desire for emancipation of female agricultural workers in orchards in the north-west of Tunisia. And we find everything that made it so salty in Promis le ciel, triple winner in Angoulême (director, screenplay and best actress for Debora Lobe Naney) and winner of the Etoile d’Or in Marrakech.
Starting with the way in which his documentary eye nourishes the fiction. And even inspire him. Since it was while making a documentary in 2016 on students from sub-Saharan Africa who came to study in Tunisia that the idea for this Promis le ciel was born, built around an Ivorian pastor and former journalist living in Tunis and hosting under her roof a young mother in search of a better future and an engineering school student who carries the hopes of her family back home.
Promised Heaven speaks of the difficulty of finding one’s place in a country that is not one’s own, despite a racism that knows neither borders nor latitude, even within the African continent. All without breaking down any open doors thanks to the writing of female characters rich in nuances and paradoxes. A relevant and original look at the issue of migrants and exile.
By Erige Sehiri. With Aïssa Maïga, Debora Lobe Naney, Laetitia Ky… Duration: 1h32. Released January 28, 2026
