UK Premiere/ Oreina

In Sahrawi refugee Ahmed’s impressive debut, he plays Khalil, a rootless young man living in the city’s margins, where shabby industrial estates meet the beautiful Saria marshland, brimming with nocturnal wildlife. Khalil’s life is a mixture of wheeling and dealing, amorous disappointments and friendship with an old poacher who shares a house on the riverbank with a brother he has not talked to for years. With an original score inspired by the likes of Jonny Greenwood and Sigur Rós, Almandoz describes his film as “a river movie. It is more liquid than solid, and open to evanescent thoughts. It is a film that shows geographical and human peripheries. It speaks of friendship and betrayal, of furtive and unrequited love, of solidarity between different people, and of revenge.”