31/10/2023 - Ayoub Gretaa, Anna Mouglalis and Grégoire Colin lead the cast of the director’s second feature film after Retuen to Bollène, produced by Barney Production

Actor Ayoub Gretaa, actress Anna Mouglalis (© Eva Rinaldi) and actor Grégoire Colin

Thursday 2 November will see the first clapperboard slam on La mer au loin, Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s second directorial effort after Return to Bollène [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (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 [+see also:
film review
interview: Faouzi Bensaïdi
film profile] and Deserts [+see also:
film review
interview: Faouzi Bensaïdi
film profile]), 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 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anamaria Vartolomei
film profile] and the series Baron noir, to name just two, and hitting cinemas on 22 November in Spirit of Ecstasy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Héléna Klotz
film profile]) and Grégoire Colin (especially impressive, of late, in The Vourdalak [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adrien Beau
film profile] 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 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arthur Harari
film profile]) 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.

(Translated from French)