The Passage: an ensemble film about Syrian migration starring Omar Sy, in theaters July 8

The Passage, directed by American filmmaker Brandt Andersen, is released in French cinemas on July 8th. The film retraces the journey of several Syrians fleeing the civil war in 2015 to reach Europe. The narrative is triggered by a flashback: Amira (Yasmine Al Massri), a doctor living in Chicago in 2023, remembers the evening of her 40th birthday in Aleppo, when a bombing killed all the members of her family. Forced to flee with her daughter Rasha (Massa Daoud), she encounters several other protagonists whose stories will intertwine: Mustafa (Yahya Mahayni), a soldier of the regime beginning to doubt the atrocities in which he participates; Marwan (Omar Sy), a cynical smuggler who exploits the refugee camp while hoping to migrate to the United States himself with his sick son; Fathi (Ziad Bakri), a poet ready to do anything to get his family out of a camp in Türkiye; and Stavros (Constantine Markoulakis), a Greek coast guard haunted by the toll of all the lives lost at sea. The film is an extension of Andersen's short film Refugee (2020), which already featured some of the same cast.

A five-chapter structure that creates suspense around the fate of the children

The 1 hour 43 minute feature film adopts a non-linear narrative, divided into five parts corresponding to five perspectives. This structure maintains suspense through transitions punctuated by cliffhangers and comprehensively addresses the various facets of irregular migration, from the sea crossing to reception in Europe. The film pays particular attention to the plight of children, whom France Télévisions describes as "the group that pays the heaviest price, regardless of their parents' position in the migration chain," citing figures from the International Alliance for Data on Children on the Move, which indicate that at least 37 million children are among the 304 million international migrants recorded in 2024. The cinematography, predominantly dark even in scenes with warm tones, underscores a suffering that the director chooses to portray without pathos. The film opens with a quote from Shakespeare taken from Sir Thomas More on "the sad fate of strangers" and is released a few days after Pope Leo XIV's visit to Lampedusa on July 4, during which he called on European countries to better integrate migrants.