Shot in powerful black and white, Nuit obscure - Au revoir ici, n’importe où is Sylvain George’s second instalment of a triptych centred on the port city of Melilla. This Spanish enclave in Morocco is a border zone between Africa and Europe, with high rates of illegal immigration. Following a group of teenagers who attempt to cross to the European continent, the documentary captures the contradictions and contrasts that dominate the lives of those suspended in the limbo of immigration policies. George’s approach is both lyrical and political — paying special attention to bodies, architectures and their different scales.

Malik and his companions are discouraged by the lack of opportunities in their country and prefer to risk their lives than inhabit a land without future. Through a series of vignettes, we see their figures sculpted by the city lights. They hide utensils and blankets in sewers, get high, cook food, recount their fights with police, sleep on concrete and stone. Burning, savage, untamed, this tribe of outsiders subvert their status by playfully appropriating a city that rejects them — a city increasingly militarised, fortified, patrolled and surrounded by barbed wire. (Cristina Álvarez López)