»Soufia Issami is the jittery and complex core of the film, never sleeping but rushing between work and her night-time encounters and obsessively scrubbing herself, in a bid to wash off both her work at the shrimp factory and her sexual encounters. The camera often tracks her in extreme closeup, her unsmiling face and tense demeanour offers fascinating clues to her steely determination and sense of self-containment.«
– Marc Adams, Screen Daily

Badia and Imane have come from Casablanca to the Moroccan port city of Tangier in hope of a better life. But the young women end up in a shrimp factory as underpaid industrial labourers. They stock up their wages at night by setting up scams on »clients« and stealing their money. Outside Tangier lies the free-trade zone, a piece of Europe on Moroccan soil, accessible only to those who have a work permit for it. Asma and Nawal have jobs in this free-trade zone. They work there in a textile factory – under similar conditions to Badia and Imane, however.
One day, the four young women meet, and form a gang of four. From now on they go eagerly to work by day and by night they roam together through the city. On their trips through the streets they steal whatever they can, restlessly searching for happiness as they do so.

Awards for ›Sur la planche‹
Preis der Jury, Paris Cinéma 2011 | Besondere Erwähnung, Paris Cinéma 2011 | Beste Schauspielerin, Bester Film und Beste Regisseurin, Taormina Film Festival 2011 | Bester Film, Antalya Golden Orange Festival 2011