If Only You Knew
In this taut 20-minute drama directed by Safiyah Chiniere, a chance encounter forces two strangers to confront the pain...
For ten years, Samba, a hardworking Senegalese immigrant played by Omar Sy, has been navigating the precarious line between legal and undocumented life in Paris. His quiet struggle for stability is upended when a bureaucratic error threatens his deportation, forcing him into the overwhelmed French immigration system. There, he meets Alice, a brilliant but emotionally burnt-out executive portrayed by Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is reluctantly volunteering to help asylum seekers. As Alice attempts to guide Samba through a labyrinth of paperwork and legal hurdles, an unlikely connection forms between them, challenging her cynicism and offering him a fragile hope. From the acclaimed directors of The Intouchables, Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, this poignant drama-comedy blends gentle humor with profound humanity, exploring the resilience of the human spirit against a backdrop of systemic indifference. The film follows Samba’s fight to build a future, a journey that becomes intertwined with Alice’s own search for meaning, revealing the unexpected ways lives can intersect and transform.