CANNES 2021: The Sea Ahead ‘البحر أمامكم’
CANNESEly Dagher's directorial debut is a well-crafted and stirring portrait of existential personalised identity crisis through the eyes of a lost teenage girl.
It is often a stoic and quiet portrayal of such, which undeniably curates a more effective thematics and tone to drive home its point. Nevertheless, that exact personalised theme is so effortlessly integrated it acts as a catch-22 in terms of hardening the exterior of The Sea Ahead's shell. In other words, the thematic strength of Dagher's debut makes the feature somewhat challenging in its accessibility.
The irony is most certainly not lost. The most positive of aspects being one of the film’s arguably most negative is laughable. But the accessibility argument begins and ends there. This is a film that knows its target audience and vice versa. That is where that angle disappears. Those who seek out this feature will be provided with a thematically rich and authentic portrayal of what is ultimately depression – feeling adrift and absent from a world that feels both out of reach and lost behind.
The thematic richness of this film is in abundance, and it is incorporated in an effortless and undeniably effective manner. Moments of joy are captured with small intimate moments of pause and internal destruction, only to be reignited, either forcefully or genuinely. These small, often elusive, blink-and-miss moments genuinely capture the theme of isolation and loneliness in an abstract that is ever so profound. Director Ely Dagher and cinematographer Shadi Chaaban capture these slight but invasive moments in tenderness but in an authentic reality. Granted, these moments evolve into more significant and more extensive thematic set-pieces, but are captured in genuine haunting desperation in the exact same way they are felt.
Even in the strong direction and cinematography, simply put, this feature begins and ends – quite literally – in the talent of lead actress Manal Issa as the emotionally tormented Jana. It is a fabulous internal performance that constantly broods an enigmatic but personalised delivery of thematic weight. The film rests solely on Issa's talent and weight of delivery regarding this character, and she delivers ten-fold with dynamic range and tender depiction of being lost. It is never overly stated where and what she feels lost in. More so an amalgamation of feeling lost in a place she wants to be found. It is a perfect, albeit haunting, prism of emotional weight, rippling into waves and crashing in a sea of torment and trauma.
Granted, there is little to say in regards to what Ely Dagher's feature gets wrong. One could argue in its length and prolonged sequences that maintain thematic weight but feel extensive. Alternatively, perhaps the extroverted thematic set pieces used as an allegory feeling slightly redundant in terms of how well crafted and conveyed said themes are throughout the film, to begin with. Alas, these are elements that are earned and incorporated organically within this feature. The Sea Ahead crafts a tremendous emotional weight and is conveyed in fabulous and immersive arrangements that curate a stunning piece of film.
