The sea in the distance: a melo as heartbreaking as luminous (critic)
The story of an exile, over ten years, between France and Morocco, which recounts disenchantment and aging far from the easy shots.
The previous film by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi, Back to Bollènehardly lasted more than an hour and told a few days about the return of a man in his hometown. Six years later, the setting exploded. The sea in the distance Ten years of ten years, from Paris to Morocco, and is fresco on a large scale. Bollène or Paris, Vaucluse or Mediterranean, same fight: it is a question of traveling in time and space, both physical and mental, exiles, where they come from and especially where they are located. At the turn of the 90s, Nour (Ayoub Gretaa, excellent), the union of the film, arrives in Marseille undocumented, before meeting a secretly gay cop (Grégoire Colin, absolutely fabulous in a particularly break-up) which will take it under its wing until the passage to the following century.
Despite everything, it is not a question of “crossing the intimate with politics” or “telling the big story by the little one”, to use ready -made formulas. The director’s admitted reference is Sentimental education de Flaubert (large full of ready -made formulas, by the way): we actually find in The sea in the distance The same narrative magnitude to tell the disenchantment caused by the passing time. The sea in the distanceit is a great title, but as the romantic literature of the 19th century seems fashionable in French cinema, the film could very well have been called Lost illusions. But it seems that it is already taken.
From Said Hamich Benlarbi. With Ayoub Gretaa, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin… Duration 1h57. Release on February 5, 2025
