AYA (synopsis)

AYA (“the wind”) is the very simple story of two bruised and battered characters struggling to survive amidst hope and fatality.

Lost in poverty on the outskirts of Calais, the towers of the ZUP Beau-Marais stand tall. In one of them, in flat no. 15, Lydie generously hosts Zimako, an undocumented migrant from Togo.

Lydie is a big-hearted 50-year-old trying to rebuild her life after a complicated 30-year long marriage, while Zimako is a resourceful, clever fellow with a quick mind who dreams of Hollywood.

At a crossroads in their lives, between an uncertain future, a restricted present and an all-too-present past, they reveal themselves.

Through the prism of these two characters, humanity is sketched out, with its paradoxes, its greatness and weaknesses.

Against the backdrop of the migration crisis and obvious social distress, Zimako and Lydie question both the society in which we live and our identity.