In the final event in this film series, Ifriqiya Cinema presents a programme of short films exploring alienation, exile and the concentric layers of kinship that bind us to one another.

What do we owe the people and places we consider akin to ourselves? How do we resolve our feelings of impotence and political inaction so far from ‘home’?

Spanning Khartoum, Tunis, Havana, Gaza, and N’Djamena – these films move across Africa and the Arab world, tracing transnational solidarities shaped by shared experiences of displacement and political rupture.

Followed by a Q&A moderated by Ifriqiya Cinema.

A Taxi for Aouzou (Chad, 1994)
Directed by Issa Serge Coelo. 22 min
Ali Baba Nour, a taxi driver, is about to become a father. As he drives clients around the streets of Chad’s capital city N’Djamena, he reveals his dreams and the challenges he faces in a post-conflict Chad.

Do Not Dream of a Wonderful World (لا تحلموا بعالم سعيد) (UK, 2022)
Directed by Leena Habiballa. 7 min
A one-shot fiction short exploring the diasporic experience of grief, loss and alienation in the Sudanese diaspora following the 2018 Sudanese revolution and subsequent coup of 2021. It derives its title from a line in the popular Sudanese song, A Dozen Pearls, which laments the long history of military coups/dictators in the country post-independence.

End / Fin (Cuba/Mozambique, 2018)
Directed by Lara Sousa. 20 min
Lara is a young filmmaker who finds herself in limbo between Cuba and Mozambique. Facing towards the Indian Ocean, she searches for answers to the long silence of her father.

Tandid (Tunisia, 2010)
Directed by Walid Mattar. 14 min
A group of unemployed friends spend all their time in a coffee shop in Tunis, commenting on and analysing football matches. Suddenly, the Israeli war against Gaza erupts, and attention turns to the conflict.

About the programme
Church Street Arab Film Nights is curated by The Arab Film Club and Ifriqiya Cinema, in dialogue with Mandy El Sayegh’s Mural: This is a Sign: Notes on Assembly. Spanning four events in the Church Street neighbourhood, the programme brings together films by Arab artists and filmmakers working across geographies and diasporas. The series invites audiences to engage with questions of representation, displacement, political witnessing, and the politics of visibility through shared viewing and discussion.

About Ifriqiya Cinema
Ifriqiya Cinema is a curatorial platform focused on presenting and contextualising cinema from across Africa and its diasporas. Led by Hajar Meddah and Amina Ali, they work across screenings, collaborations, and publications, highlighting African and diasporic cinemas and cinematic cultures – in dialogue with questions of history, memory, and decoloniality. Ifriqiya Cinema collaborates with independent cinemas and institutions to bring archival, restored, and contemporary works to UK audiences. Their goal is to share films from across Africa and its diasporas with the hopes of encouraging a broader and more multidimensional understanding of Africa and they have held screenings and events at the BFI Southbank, Atlas Cinema, The Barbican Centre, Cubitt Gallery and contributed to Notre Regards.