Hope

On a journey arranged by smugglers, crossing the Sahara in an attempt to reach Europe, the paths of Léonard from Cameroon and Hope from Nigeria cross. At first he does not want to take her along, but Hope knows she cannot survive this road alone and will not let him go. In the desert, in the ghettos at the stopping places, inside an order where nobody owes anybody anything, the two learn to hold on to each other. The film presents the journey not as an adventure but as a market where people can be sold, and it builds the bond between them on that ground. Boris Lojkine’s ninety one minute French film is his first fiction feature and was shot along the migration route itself. Endurance Newton plays Hope and Justin Wang plays Léonard. It was completed in 2014 and won the SACD award at Cannes Critics’ Week.