DEADLOCK

Sifou and Mahrez are chatting on the beach. The 17-year-olds grew up in Sidi el Kebir, Algiers, and both have older brothers who dared to cross the Mediterranean by boat to get to Europe. The uncertainty about the whereabouts of their brothers is as much on their minds as what the future has in store for them. Algerian photographer Mahdi Boucif and French director Lucien Beucher paint an empathetic portrait of two young men – with the sea as an ambivalent symbol of hope.