Not all stories about migrants pass through Europe

“They promised me heaven / but for now I'm still stuck on earth, fighting to get by”. That's what Promise the sky, Delgrès' song that, besides inspiring the title ofThe promised sky, setting the pace for the final minutes of Erige Sehiri's third feature film, rounding off the discourse that the film has been organically building. The director ofBetween fig trees (2022) focuses on three women from sub-Saharan Africa living in Tunisia, legally and socially marginalized. Marie used to work as a journalist and is now an evangelical pastor, and she gives refuge to Naney, who wants to reunite with her daughter on the other side of the border but cannot escape her transitional state, and Jolie, a student with her sights set on Europe. Joining this trio is Kenta, a girl who survived a shipwreck and acts as a catalyst for the protagonists' fears and expectations.

While the official narrative of current events insists that the issue of migrants exclusively strains Europe and the United States, The promised sky moves the frame to other coordinates. With a naturalist's will and without resorting to cheap shots, Sehiri exposes the growing disappointment and uncertainty of his characters, who clash again and again with the limits of a country that does not allow them to have anything of their own, not even a birthday present.