Director: Benito Zambrano
Benito Zambrano's 2024 drama Jumping the Fence follows a Guinean bricklayer's fight to return to the life he built in Madrid after a sudden deportation tears it away.
What is Jumping the Fence about?
Ibrahim has settled in Madrid, working construction and sharing a home with his partner Mariama while she carries their first child. That stability collapses the day police detain him: without residency papers, he is sent back to Guinea Conakry with almost nothing. Rather than accept the separation, he sets out to retrace an impossible route back across the continent. The journey lands him at Mount Gurugú, a makeshift camp on the border where hundreds wait for a chance to cross the fence into Spanish territory. Among them is Aminata, a young woman equally determined to make the jump, and their fates intertwine as the group weighs when and how to attempt the crossing. Zambrano frames the climb itself as brutal and uncertain, less an adventure than a test few survive intact, while Ibrahim's thoughts stay fixed on the child about to be born without him.
Cast & crew
Moussa Sylla anchors the film as Ibrahim, carrying long stretches with little dialogue through physical performance alone. Édith Martínez-Val plays Mariama, the anchor Ibrahim is fighting to return to, and Éric Nantchouang and Nansi Nsue round out the camp community at Gurugú. Spanish veterans Vicky Peña and Mariola Fuentes appear in supporting roles that widen the story beyond the border itself.
Context & significance
Director Benito Zambrano, known for socially engaged Spanish cinema, builds the film around the real Mount Gurugú crossing point separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Melilla, a route that has drawn international attention for years. The Spain-France co-production leans on location work rather than studio staging to keep the migrant camp sequences grounded.
Where & how to watch
Jumping the Fence is available to watch on K-Time with a free account login, presented with a Farsi-friendly interface and included Persian dubbing and subtitles for Persian-speaking audiences.