DISTANCE
SAMI KALI | SWITZERLAND | 2025 | 14 MIN | ARABIC + FRENCH EST
SAMI KALI | SWITZERLAND | 2025 | 14 MIN | ARABIC + FRENCH EST
Subtitles: English
Synopsis
A young Swiss-Tunisian tries to reconnect with his parents, despite the tensions and taboos associated with his homosexuality.
Filmmaker Bio
Sami Kali is a Swiss-Tunisian actor, writer and director trained at the Giles Foreman Centre for Acting in London. Working between England and Switzerland, he is active on stage and screen. Drawing on acting and earlier photography studies at CEPV in Vevey, he has directed plays, fiction shorts and a comedy web series. He is currently writing his first feature, Mon nom est Warda, supported by the Migros Culture Percentage Story Lab and produced by Geneva-based Point Prod.
Director's Statement
DISTANCE is a film that draws heavily on my personal experience as a gay man of Tunisian origin. I was able to write this story because I experienced what my character went through. […] In my film, the protagonist, Nadim, struggles between two realities. On the one hand, traditionalism and, on the other, family loyalty. […] This paradox is central, because it is this loyalty, this love that sustains the characters' relationship, that preserves a tiny dose of hope that maybe everything will work out, that a future together is possible.
Producer
Eric Bouduban, Marion Poissonneau
Writer
Sami Kali
Cast
- Nadhir El Arabi
- Ahmed Belbachir
- Margarita Sanchez
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