Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
Writer: Abderrahmane Sissako
Cinematographer: Jacques Besse
Cast: Khatra Ould Abder Kader, Maata Ould Mohamed Abeid
Running Time: 95 min
Abderrahmane Sissako has said, “One of the dramas of Africa is that its people are rarely confronted by its own image.” Sissako’s Waiting for Happiness is a portrait of the transit city Nouadhibou on the West African coast, a locale struggling against foreign influences. Abdallah (Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamed) returns to his homeland for an indeterminate amount of time before emigrating to Europe. Abdallah feels disconnected from his native land during his stay because he dresses in Western clothes and does not speak the language, but he finds small ways to bring himself closer to the people. While in Nouadhibou, Abdallah encounters Nana, a prostitute, who tries to seduce him; Makan, who like him dreams of living in Europe; Khatra, the orphan apprenticed to a local electrician; and a Chinese immigrant who sings karaoke.
Rather than relying on plot or dialogue to drive the film, Sissako focuses on images and the poetry they evoke. As a Russian-educated, Paris-based, Mauritanian director, Abderrahmane Sissako uses Waiting for Happiness as a poetic reflection on ideas of home, travel, and exile. The film received critical acclaim at Cannes in 2002 for “its exquisite poetic depiction of the emotional and humorous complications that can arise in the midst of a simple life.”
