Loin (2001) - film review

For the past few years, Serge has been working as a long distance lorry driver, employed by a company that ships goods from Morocco to Europe. It is a demanding job that gives him plenty of time for reflection, and boredom. During a stay in Tangier, he decides to make a reconciliation with his former girlfriend, Sarah, a Moroccan Jew.  She has refused to have anything to do with him since her mother’s death and intends to join her brother in Canada.  Serge appeals to Sarah’s protector, a young Arab named Saïd, to allow him to meet up with Sarah, promising in return to smuggle Saïd into Europe...

With its North African setting and harrowing sense of realism, Loin makes a striking contrast with the kind of film for which director André Téchiné is best known, intense romantic dramas set in recognisable French locations.  The film effectively combines social realist themes, such as drugs trafficking, cultural divisions and illegal immigration, with an intimate portrait of fragile human relationships.  Although perhaps not as engaging and polished as some of the director’s better known films, Loin is a sensitive, well-constructed and thought-provoking piece of cinema, a film that offers an uncompromising insight into the tough, fractured world that exists on the doorstep of Europe.

© James Travers 2007

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I don’t agree that this film is below the standard of Téchiné’s more well known films. Many films by Western directors set in Tangier use the city as a novelty, Téchiné uses the city as an element of the mood he creates in the film.  Very well cast and well acted.
Bill (Woodland Hills, California, US)

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