PROMISED SKY (PROMIS LE CIEL) World Cinema

Erige Sehiri’s open-hearted sophomore fiction feature follows three resilient Ivorian women living in Tunisia whose bonds are tested amid a ruthless immigration crackdown. In the film’s opening moments, the three women take in a young girl who recently survived a capsized refugee boat in the Mediterranean and has been orphaned by the tragedy. Their efforts to create a home for the child mirror their own precarious residency — either lacking documentation or possessing legal statuses that could be revoked at any moment. Anchored by formidable, magnetic, often jubilant performances from Aïssa Maïga, Laetitia Ky and newcomer Debora Lobe Naney, PROMISED SKY courses through the trials and tribulations of a tight-knit group of women living in fear of a government hostile to their very existence. In witnessing the methods the Tunisian government uses to weed out undocumented immigrants, audiences will discover many dreadful parallels to America’s current regime, but there’s a light and a beauty in Sehiri’s work that promises hope and makes the case for shared humanity in the face of intolerance. –Travis Weedon