ACCREDITATION FOR THE 7TH EDITION IS NOW OPEN 

THOSE WHO WATCH OVER

( 2025 )
Feature Documentary Competition |
 
Belgium
,
France
,
Qatar
 |
 French, Italian, Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Persian, Azari |
 88 min

About the film

In Brussels, a city shaped by its immigrant population, Those Who Watch Over explores the intimate and diverse ways in which Arab and African immigrants, now buried in their host land, continue to influence and connect with the living.

Director

Karima Saidi

Karima Saïdi is a filmmaker whose work explores themes of exile and memory. A graduate in film editing (INSAS) and screenwriting (ULB), she has built a multifaceted career. She works as a documentary editor and script supervisor on fiction films. As a director, she leaves a more personal mark through her own films and sound installations, which explore the notion of boundaries. She also teaches at the University of Liège (ULiège) and ESAV in Marrakech.

Producer

Julie Freres

Production Company

Screenplay

Karima Saïdi

Cinematography

Caroline Guimbal

Editing

Yaël Bitton, Frédéric Fichefet, Karima Saïdi

Sound

Quentin Jacques, Nicolas Pommier

Cast

NA

Contacts

International Sales: Dérives, Belgium, info@derives.be

Producer

Julie Freres

Production Company

Screenplay

Karima Saïdi

Cinematography

Caroline Guimbal

Editing

Yaël Bitton, Frédéric Fichefet, Karima Saïdi

Sound

Quentin Jacques, Nicolas Pommier

Cast

NA

Contacts

International Sales: Dérives, Belgium, info@derives.be

More About Film

By keeping her camera inside the Migrants’ Cemetery in Brussels to document the spiritual connection between visitors and their deceased loved ones, Karima Saïdi’s documentary becomes a meditative exploration of death as part of the eternal cycle of life. Her camera’s intimate gaze on the cemetery—chosen by migrants of various religions and ethnicities as a shared resting place on their journey to eternity—captures the tender details of families visiting their graves, revealing how their lives remain intertwined with those who have passed, despite their absence.The director captures the visitors as they speak to their departed loved ones, openly sharing their feelings and worries. They come seeking a bond they refuse to let fade. The repeated scenes of cleaning and tending to the graves reaffirm this connection. Tombstones bearing names and dates recall the time they once shared. Death stirs sorrow, intensified by the rumble of the digging machines, yet time gently eases the pain. These visits take on a different tone, where joy and sadness intertwine, and sometimes even blossom into new friendships. Visitors share sweets to honor their dead, guided by a sense that everyone here inhabits the same space in peace—able to rise above the differences that may once have divided them. Here, there is no separation between Muslim, Christian, or Jewish graves. The migrants’ cemetery in Brussels thus becomes a place of much-needed harmony, where ethnicities, religions, and communities meet. The film’s beauty lies in this very idea: through it, the Moroccan filmmaker offers an intimate and profoundly personal cinematic vision of the cemetery, reflecting on the passage to eternity as something that exists side by side with life itself.Kais Kasim

Producer

Julie Freres

Screenplay

Karima Saïdi

Cinematography

Caroline Guimbal

Editing

Yaël Bitton, Frédéric Fichefet, Karima Saïdi

Sound

Quentin Jacques, Nicolas Pommier

Cast

NA

Contact

International Sales: Dérives, Belgium, info@derives.be

More About Film

By keeping her camera inside the Migrants’ Cemetery in Brussels to document the spiritual connection between visitors and their deceased loved ones, Karima Saïdi’s documentary becomes a meditative exploration of death as part of the eternal cycle of life. Her camera’s intimate gaze on the cemetery—chosen by migrants of various religions and ethnicities as a shared resting place on their journey to eternity—captures the tender details of families visiting their graves, revealing how their lives remain intertwined with those who have passed, despite their absence.The director captures the visitors as they speak to their departed loved ones, openly sharing their feelings and worries. They come seeking a bond they refuse to let fade. The repeated scenes of cleaning and tending to the graves reaffirm this connection. Tombstones bearing names and dates recall the time they once shared. Death stirs sorrow, intensified by the rumble of the digging machines, yet time gently eases the pain. These visits take on a different tone, where joy and sadness intertwine, and sometimes even blossom into new friendships. Visitors share sweets to honor their dead, guided by a sense that everyone here inhabits the same space in peace—able to rise above the differences that may once have divided them. Here, there is no separation between Muslim, Christian, or Jewish graves. The migrants’ cemetery in Brussels thus becomes a place of much-needed harmony, where ethnicities, religions, and communities meet. The film’s beauty lies in this very idea: through it, the Moroccan filmmaker offers an intimate and profoundly personal cinematic vision of the cemetery, reflecting on the passage to eternity as something that exists side by side with life itself.Kais Kasim