Melancholy in Marseille: Mouglalis & Grégoire Colin Join Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s “La mer au loin”

After landing in Cannes with outstanding French-Moroccan cinema items in the Un Certain Regard selected Kamal Lazraq’s Hounds (read review) and Directors’ Fortnight selected Faouzi Bensaïdi’s Déserts (see interview) Saïd Hamich Benlarbi will be taking his producer’s hat and alternating with the director’s clapperboard for his sophomore feature which just added some new players. According to Le Film Francais reports Saïd Hamich Benlarbi will direct Anna Mouglalis and Grégoire Colin (along with the already cast Ayoub Gretaa) in that La Mer Au Loin. Benlarbi will produce via his label Barney Production along with The Jokers’ Manuel Chiche. His debut film Return to Bollene received a prestigious Louis Delluc award nomination.

27-year-old Nour has immigrated illegally to Marseille, where he and his friends live a marginal and festive life. From 1990 to 2000, Nour loves, grows older and clings to his dreams, damaged by the melancholy of an irreversible exile. He falls in love with a woman who happens to be married with a cop. The  melodrama will include Rai — a form of lyrical Algerian folk music.