Waiting for Happiness

Waiting for Happiness (Heremakono)
Abderrahmane Sissako, Mali-Mauritania, 2002, Color, 95’

“Homesickness is already felt before going away,” says the director Sissako. Passengers wait in a fishing village by the ocean for their broken car to be repaired. Some will try their luck in Europe, some came to visit their family, and some will lose their lives on the way. This poetic film woven with personal impressions, partly a collection of memories, partly the portrait of a village, is based on improvisation, it develops on a vague area between facts and fiction. Breathtaking images and the director’s idiosyncratic humour make the film captivating for the audience. Sissako is an African contemporary filmmaker whose every film creates big expectations and who is recognized in USA as well.

FIPRESCI Prize, “Un Certain Regard”, Cannes Film Festival, 2003; Grand Prize, Fespaco Film Festival, 2003.