The Sea Is Behind

During the opening, Tarek sits in a café, bleeding as his wound bleeds into a cup of milk, a stark image of innocence overshadowed by violence. The moment signals how everyday spaces become venues of humiliation for him. This brutality foreshadows the social judgment that will follow.

At festive occasions, his father forces him to perform in women’s costumes atop a horse-drawn cart while crowds watch. The spectacle is a tool of exploitation that hides the boy’s pain behind a smile. It seeds the belief that he exists to be gazed at and judged.

Society brands him as sexually deviant, subjecting him to harassment and social ostracism. Rumors spread, and authorities and bystanders treat him with suspicion and contempt. The stigma isolates him from any ordinary life.

Shortly after, he is arrested on charges of perversion, confronted by a legal frame that seems predetermined. The police present the charges as unquestionable, pressing him into a claustrophobic world of suspicion. His denial feels overwhelmed by the mood of the system.

During the interrogation, he faces insinuations and psychological torment designed to break him. He denies the charges, but the relentless questions and the atmosphere of certainty from his interrogators erode his resolve. The scene underscored the dehumanizing power of the authorities.

Amid the oppressive machinery, one officer offers a small gesture of humanity, recognizing Tarek’s pain from his own losses. He wipes away Tarek's tears and silently acknowledges the injustice they both endure. The moment hints at a glimmer of empathy within a broken system.

Tarek’s imprisonment reveals a merciless homeland where the police apparatus tortures bodies and aims to wound the soul. The film shows that even those who enforce order are trapped as victims of a larger, dehumanizing machine. The cycle of cruelty highlights the hollowness of the system.

Consumed by revenge, Tarek grips a pistol and aims at the officer, but his finger refuses to pull the trigger. He retreats into a lifeless city where people move yet feel no life, a world rendered in black and white. The moment underscores the futility of violence in a colorless existence.

On the same day, both his closest friend and his father’s horse die, a double blow that shatters his old life. The losses crystallize the futility of staying in a colorless world and push him toward a new possibility. The coincidences weigh heavily, signaling a turning point.

Realizing that color returns only if he leaves society behind, Tarek turns toward the sea, seeking a horizon beyond oppression. He resolves to cross into the unknown, chasing freedom and memory. The sea becomes a symbol of potential rebirth.

His journey mirrors Tariq ibn Ziyad’s crossing into Andalusia, as he steps boldly into the unknown, following in the footsteps of those who drowned before him. The act becomes a personal leap of faith against the forces that kept him captive. The historical echo lends him a mythic scale.

Reaching the sea, the world begins to reclaim its colors as waves wash away old wounds. The embrace of the water signals potential rebirth and a break from the colorless regime. The journey ends not with vengeance but with a renewed sense of possibility.