We went there without really knowing what to expect, wondering if the duration was “worth it”. We came away deeply scarred. Since November 5, French cinemas have been showing the entire trilogy Dark nightby French filmmaker Sylvain George. A triptych as dark and opaque as its title suggests, which follows over several periods the fate of Moroccan miners trying to reach Europe.
The first two films, Wild leaves (2022) and Goodbye here, anywhere (2023), were filmed in Melilla, a Spanish exclave located on the coast of northern Morocco, through which hundreds of migrants pass in search of a better future in Europe. The filmmaker filmed several young people trying to survive in this city which is hostile to them and multiplying attempts at illegal passage. The last part –“Ain’t I a Child”– is set in Paris, while the young people, finally arriving at their destination, wander around the Eiffel Tower.
This third and new opus is probably the darkest, the boys having now arrived in this destination which made them dream so much, but without any real prospect of a future. While tourists and passers-by crowd a few centimeters from them, without ever meeting their eyes, young migrants experience cold, violence, addiction and depression.
Jostle the spectator
The three experimental documentaries, each lasting 2h45 to 4h15, can be viewed together or separately. And although the time displayed may seem prohibitive, it is nevertheless essential. It is he who forces us to experience, beyond a formatted and comfortable time limit, the experience of these young boys who live on the street.
“Conform to predetermined durations which, whether we like it or not, direct the gaze, also assign the spectator and the director to a certain place”estimates Sylvain George. The more films progress, the more they break down the spectator’s benchmarks and barriers and allow them to access a rare viewing experience. Because the images of Dark night stay in mind long after viewing them.
As a point of focus, Sylvain George chose young people who have made the decision to stay on the street, for reasons that are often more complex than they seem. “In Spain, they are welcomed in a center. As long as they follow the rules a little, where they undergo training, they are almost sure to have papers. But there are many who do not want to stay three years like that in Spain and who say to themselves: “We will first go for a little trip to Europe, then we will come back a year and a half before the majority”.”
Unfortunately, this is where the situation gets complicated for most of them. “They rob pharmacies, they make money, they fall into delinquency a little. They can buy clothes, they can send a little money abroad, finally to Morocco. And then very quickly, they are caught up in street life and find themselves in a kind of mood where they take drugs.”
“Deconstruct totally dominant and generic representations”
For these young people, often out of school and on the street from a very young age, adapting to life in a center is much more difficult than it is on paper. So, the street is often considered the best choice. “In Morocco, they are assigned to non-existence. We must understand them, these are people who have often experienced very difficult situations, including sexual assault. They are no longer used to the rules. It is not so easy for them to join a center with fixed schedules and regulations. In addition, they often do not speak French. Once they arrive in a country they don’t really know, they absolutely need to stay in a group, to form a community.”
The filmmaker remembers the tragic case of a young man who left the center of Melilla “to follow the movement of his friends”. After arriving in France, “he started taking drugs, then using pharmacies. He was arrested once, twice, three times, four times. The fifth time he ended up in prison. When he came out, he was unrecognizable. Then he was caught again in a pharmacy, asleep under the medication. He told the judge: “If you put me in prison, I will kill myself.” She put him in prison. And that’s what happened that same evening, he hanged himself.”
Dramatic destinies, Dark night depicts plenty of them. But the author of the trilogy does not indulge in miserabilism or sentimentalism, rejecting a certain number of narrative and aesthetic conventions. Which does not, however, prevent the emotion from blossoming.
Sylvain George, who has also made documentaries on Calais or the Nuit Debout movement, has long wondered about European migration policies and their consequences. In all, he devoted more than ten years to Dark nightfrom writing to financing, including the different filming periods. With both an aesthetic and political objective: “Deconstruct totally dominant and generic representations, forms of essentialization about migrants.”
Black and white and fragmented structure
The three films thus adopt a structure of fragments, made up of scenes presented without context, where the events depicted are sometimes enigmatic. The documentary maker refuses to play on the principles traditionally accepted for films that deal with immigration, in particular what he calls “compassionate card”.
“Often, films that are made on so-called social subjects, or on immigration, are made by people who come from the wealthy classes.notes Sylvain George. I don’t want to essentialize either, because you can very well come from a so-called privileged place and make films. But there are very few who question their posture, that’s what is problematic. And so, they will make films “on”, with an overlooking point of view.
The filmmaker deplores the fact that the majority of these films employ “a very humanitarian, social or compassionate approach. That is to say, the subject is depoliticized. It is always the old Christian software that comes to the fore and we witness the “passion” of a character, with all the stages up to the crucifixion and possibly the resurrection. This play on emotion is privileged, disregarding the very conditions of existence of these people. What makes these people end up experiencing this? If people sleep on the streets in Calais, it’s not because of fate or anything. It’s good because there are policies that are put in place that reduce people to having to live and sleep under a bridge.”
As for black and white, which gives the films a deep melancholy, it is there to subvert and reappropriate the visual language of archives and bygone facts: “The myth of progress is extremely pervasive in our societiesspecifies Sylvain George. Politicians rely on this: “Ah yes, it’s terrible. Well, yesterday it was still worse and tomorrow it will be better.” So the idea of working with black and white is to question this doxa. We work on the extreme contemporary. Black and white is not an archive, it is reality.”
However, Sylvain George refuses to be confined to the box of activist cinema. “I am not making denunciation cinema. People are big enough to position themselves. I’m certainly not going to tell them: “You have to think this, this, that.” When I make films, it’s because I want to discover what it’s like in a particular place.” So for sure, to appreciate Dark nightyou have to take the time to find out what it’s like and be willing to live a sometimes unpleasant experience. But if the result allows you to see the world a little differently and free yourself from your own prejudices, then yes, it’s probably worth it.
By Sylvain George
Released November 5, 2025
