La Traversée

Every summer, many people sail across the Mediterranean between France and Algeria. Cars crammed to bursting, decks piled high with suitcases and parcels. At sea between two countries, the subject of all conversation in the cabins, lounges or on deck is departure and the homeland. For some passengers, this is their first visit to France. For others, it is the end of a short holiday back in their hometown. The older travellers carry with them tales of life in France and history. The younger folk describe an Algeria that lacks jobs, and their hopes for the future. First-time visitors listen and learn from those who have already “made the crossing”. Full of a humour born of lucidity or fatalism, and an awareness of painful separation, the film offers another way of recounting and watching how immigration takes shape in the lapse of a voyage. As one passenger dreams: “The ideal solution would be to combine two universes into a third.­