Murad is an educated Moroccan man with a four-year university degree in English who struggles to find reliable employment. He initially works as a travel guide for tourists in Tangier but finds the market oversaturated. Highly analytical and prone to fantasy, he views illegal emigration as his only path to financial stability and respects the power of storytelling.

Aziz is a tall, lanky man holding a two-year degree in mechanics who faces constant unemployment in Morocco. His inability to find steady work creates tension with his in-laws, driving his resolute decision to emigrate to Madrid. He is practical about his choices, even when they put emotional and physical distance between him and his loved ones.

Halima is a twenty-nine-year-old mother living in a slum, driven by a desperate need to protect her children from extreme poverty and an abusive household. Barely literate, she exhausts legal and societal avenues to secure a divorce before turning to illegal emigration. She is fiercely protective, practical, and determined to carve out agency for herself.

Faten is a young Moroccan woman who initially attends university and is heavily involved in a devout Islamic student organization. After being expelled due to a bureaucrat's interference and fleeing the country, she eventually turns to sex work in Spain to survive. She carries the weight of her lost innocence and resents customers who project cultural stereotypes onto her.

Larbi is a wealthy, comfortable bureaucrat in the Moroccan Ministry of Education who routinely accepts bribes. Deeply concerned with social appearances and status, he views his daughter's sudden interest in fundamentalist Islam as a personal embarrassment. He uses his institutional power to punish those he feels threaten his family's modern, Westernized lifestyle.

Noura is a wealthy public university student preparing to transfer to New York University. She adopts strict religious practices and dons a hijab under Faten's influence, drastically changing her lifestyle and rejecting her family's secular, materialistic values.

Salma is Larbi's wife, a woman who initially tries to maintain peace in her household. She views her daughter's religious phase as harmless at first, but eventually aligns with her husband when Noura's actions threaten the family's reputation.

Zohra is Aziz's practical and brave wife. She works to maintain their household in Morocco while facing the emotional toll of her husband's absence and the unfulfilled promises of his financial success abroad.

Lahcen is Aziz's best childhood friend who scrapes by selling phone cards and working at the post office. He vehemently opposes Aziz's decision to leave Morocco, preferring to find small, local solutions to their mutual poverty.

Maati is Halima's husband, a former cab driver who loses his job due to alcoholism. He subjects his family to a cycle of physical abuse and empty apologies, trapping Halima in a miserable marriage.

Rahal is a smuggler who organizes the illegal boat crossings from Morocco to Spain. He profits heavily from the desperation of impoverished Moroccans, cramming twenty-eight people into a boat meant for eight.

Farid is Halima's son. After surviving the boat crossing, he gains a local reputation as a blessed child, drawing neighbors who seek his blessings for their own troubles.

Mouna is Halima's ten-year-old daughter. She represents the future Halima desperately wants to save from the poverty and violence of the slums.

Martín is a teenage university student in Spain and the son of a retired army lieutenant. He treats Faten better than other clients but constantly asks invasive questions, trying to fit her into his fantasies of Arab women.

Betoul is a nanny who shares an apartment with Faten in Spain. She lives frugally to send money back home and frequently judges Faten's line of work, though she relies on her to pay rent.

Anas is Murad's coworker at a shop in Tangier. He is less responsible than Murad and speaks broken English, often relying on his coworker to handle English-speaking tourists.