Amine Benrachid arrived in France with nothing but the clothes on his back, having crossed the Mediterranean on a rubber dinghy and walked across the border on foot. Today, the Chadian-South Sudanese actor is sitting on the jury of the Citizenship Prize at Cannes, and is preparing to tell his own story on screen.
Benrachid left Chad at the age of 17, heading for Libya with Europe as his destination. After spending a year there, including four months in forced detention, he crossed the Mediterranean on a rubber dinghy bound for Italy.
