For the third event in this series we are screening Abderrahmane Sissako’s Waiting for Happiness – a contemplative and poetic collage of the changing lives and varied destinies of the residents of Nouadhibou. With a Q&A by Amina Ali and Hajar Meddah of Ifriqiya Cinema.

Waiting for Happiness (Mauritania, 2002)
Written and directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. 90 min
Before he leaves Mauritania for Europe, Abdullah visits his mother in the coastal town of Nouadhibou to say his goodbyes. He sticks out sorely, no longer dressing like his neighbours and unable to speak his mother tongue. Despite this, he slowly befriends Khadra, a young boy apprenticed to an elderly electrician Maata, who sets out to revive Abdullah’s Hassaniya.

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.