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Between Desert and Sea: A Mauritanian film series

From March 04, 2022 until April 29, 20227:30 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.

Throughout the months of March and April, Casa Árabe is devoting its film schedule in Madrid to Mauritanian film, as a complement to our display of contemporary cultural works produced in that country, forming the contents of the exhibition “Memories in Motion: Contemporary art from Mauritania.“

This selection of films includes the most emblematic movie in all of Mauritania’s cinema, Heremakono (“Waiting for Happiness”), whose director, filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako,is one of Africa’s most charismatic personages.

During Women’s Week, we have scheduled the documentary “Awaiting the Men” (“En attendant les hommes”) by director Katy Léna Ndiaye, a critically acclaimed film at the time of its release.

The film “Oh, Sun” (“Soleil Ô”)* is an African cinema classic and point of reference in the denunciation of slavery and conditions among the migrant population in Europe. The selection of feature films is rounded off with “Malouma, Diva of the Sands” (“Malouma, diva des sables”) by Cheikh N’diaye. It is a documentary about the well-known Mauritanian singer, one of the best-known international voices in the country’s music scene. This film series also includes two recently produced short-subject films that express their authors’ concern for environmental conservation and respect for nature.

The series is being hosted with the support of the African Film Festival of Tarifa.

*Version restored by the Cineteca di Bologna at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in collaboration with Med Hondo. Restoration funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation and The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project. 
Between Desert and Sea: A Mauritanian film series
Photo: from Med Honndo's "Soleil Ô".
  • Film: “Oh, Sun” (“Soleil Ô”)
    Film poster: “Oh, Sun” (Med Hondo)

    Film: “Oh, Sun” (“Soleil Ô”)

    March 04, 20227:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: Tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation. You may only receive one discount. Sales in advance at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screenin (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets. Mask use is required at all times.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    At our headquarters in Madrid on Friday, March 4, we are beginning a film series devoted to Mauritanian cinema, with the first screening of this film by director Med Hondo. Tickets now on sale..
    “Oh, Sun” (“Soleil Ô”) by Med Hondo. Fiction.Mauritania; 98 minutes (1969).

    The film Oh, Sun, shot over four years on a shoestring budget, tells the story of a black immigrant who makes his way to Paris, to the country of “his ancestors, the Gauls.”

    This film manifesto speaks out against a new form of slavery: the immigrant desperately seeking work and a place to live, but finding only indifference, rejection, humiliation... until his last outcry of rebellion.

    “Oh, Sun” is the title of a West Indian song that narrates the pain felt by Africans from Dahomey (now Benin) taken to the Caribbean as slaves.

    Version restored by the Cineteca di Bologna at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in collaboration with Med Hondo. Restoration funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation and The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project. 
  • Double feature session: Awaiting the Men (“En attendant les Hommes”) and “Tekkere”
    Film poster: “Awaiting the Men” by Katy Lena Ndiaye

    Double feature session: Awaiting the Men (“En attendant les Hommes”) and “Tekkere”

    March 11, 20227:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: Tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation. You may only receive one discount. Sales in advance at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets. Mask use is required at all times.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    Casa Árabe’s film series on Mauritanian cinema continues. On Friday, March 11, we will be screening two documentaries: a feature film by Katy Léna Ndiaye and a short-subject film by Ibrahima N’diaye. Buy your tickets online now.
    Awaiting the Men (“En attendant les Hommes”) by Katy Léna Ndiaye.
    Documentary; Mauritania, Belgium, Senegal; 56 minutes (2007).
    The setting is Oualata, the red city at the edge of the Mauritanian desert. In this place, an ephemeral shelter to protect from the sands, three women practice the art of traditional painting by decorating the walls of the city’s houses. In a society supposedly dominated by tradition, religion and men, these women express their way of perceiving the relationship between men and women with surprising freedom.

    Tekkere by Medina Ibrahima N’diaye; Documentary; Mauritania; 15 minutes; (2017).
    In recent years, Nouakchott has undergone a notable downturn in sanitary conditions, with piles of garbage giving off a foul smell that stinks up the population’s living space. Malick, a young sheep farmer from the district of Kebba, tries to do something about this blight by raising awareness, staging plays about the subject and clean-up days. With the help of Alpha, the fishmonger, and Khattary, the shopkeeper, who live across from the dump, they keep watch to dissuade garbage collectors and set up a monitoring and control committee at all the most sensitive spots.
  • Film: “Heremakono” (“Waiting for Happiness”)
    Film poster: Heremakono (“Waiting for Happiness”)

    Film: “Heremakono” (“Waiting for Happiness”)

    March 18, 20227:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: Tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation. You may only receive one discount. Sales in advance at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets. Mask use is required at all times
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    At this third session in Casa Árabe’s film series dedicated to Mauritanian cinema, we will be presenting this famous film directed by Abderrahmane Sissako. The screening will be taking place in Madrid on Friday, March 18.
    Heremakono (“Waiting for Happiness”) by Abderrahmane Sissako; Fiction; Mauritania; 95 minutes; original language version with Spanish subtitles; (2002).
    Abdallah, a young Mauritanian boy, goes to pick his mother up in Nouadhibou, as he awaits his trip to Europe. In this place of exile where he does not understand the language, he attempts to decipher the world around him: Nana, a young woman who tries to seduce him; Makan, who dreams of traveling away like Abdallah; Maata, an old fisherman turned electrician; or the young, wide-eyed Khatra, who helps him out of isolation by teaching him the local dialect.

    Conversations crisscross and separate, but always with a fixed gaze on the horizon, awaiting some theoretical happiness...
  • Double feature session: “Achajara” and “Malouma, Diva of the Sands” (“Malouma, diva des Sables”)
    Film poster: Malouma, Diva of the Sands

    Double feature session: “Achajara” and “Malouma, Diva of the Sands” (“Malouma, diva des Sables”)

    March 25, 20227:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: Tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation. You may only receive one discount. Sales in advance at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets. Mask use is required at all times. 
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    As we do each Friday, we will be offering you a new example of Mauritanian
    cinema. This week, we are screening a fictional short-subject film by Cheikh Mohamed Horma and a documentary by Cheikh N’diaye.
    Achajara by Cheikh Mohamed Horma; Fictional short-subject film; Mauritania, Morocco; 9 minutes (2017)
    A lumberjack crosses the desert carrying his supplies. He contemplates the peace and quiet of nature. He grows tired and sits in the shade of a tree, alone in the empty space.

    “Malouma, Diva of the Sands” (“Malouma, diva des Sables”) by Cheikh N’diaye, Documentary, France, Mauritania; 53 minutes (2005)
    Malouma Mint Meidah is a well-known singer from Mauritania, heiress to a dynasty of poet-singers. Breaking with tradition, Malouma decides to defend women’s right to education with her songs. This decision will end up getting her expelled from her own country. After having performed on major international stages, Malouma goes on a concert tour in Mauritania for the first time in ten years. The film gives us the chance to discover the personality of this amazing singer, her music, her struggles and her country.
  • Film: “Oh, Sun” (“Soleil Ô”)
    Film poster: Film “Soleil Ô” by Med Hondo

    Film: “Oh, Sun” (“Soleil Ô”)

    April 01, 20227:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: Tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation. You may only receive one discount. Sales in advance at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets. Mask use is required at all times.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    If you missed the first session of this film by director Med Hondo on Friday, April 1, you will now get another chance to see it. We will be continuing our film screenings as part of the movie schedule devoted to Mauritanian cinema.
    “Oh, Sun” (“Soleil Ô”) by Med HondoFiction; Mauritania; 98 minutes (1969).
    The film Oh, Sun, shot over four years on a shoestring budget, tells the story of a black immigrant who makes his way to Paris, to the country of “his ancestors, the Gauls.”

    This film manifesto speaks out against a new form of slavery: the immigrant desperately seeking work, a place to live, but finding only indifference, rejection, humiliation... until his last outcry of rebellion.

    “Oh, Sun” is the title of a West Indian song that narrates the pain felt by Africans from Dahomey (now Benin) taken to the Caribbean as slaves.

    Version restored by the Cineteca di Bologna at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in collaboration with Med Hondo. Restoration funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation and The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project. 
  • Double feature session: Awaiting the Men (“En attendant les Hommes”) and “Tekkere”
    Film poster: “Awaiting the Men” by Katy Lena Ndiaye

    Double feature session: Awaiting the Men (“En attendant les Hommes”) and “Tekkere”

    April 08, 20227:30 p.m.
    MARID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: Tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation. You may only receive one discount. Sales in advance at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets. Mask use is required at all times.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    On Monday, April 4, we are holding yet another new movie screening to celebrate Mauritanian filmmaking. On this occasion, we will be showing two documentaries: one directed by Katy Léna Ndiaye and another by Ibrahima N’diaye.
    Awaiting the Men (“En attendant les Hommes”) by Katy Léna Ndiaye.
    Documentary; Mauritania, Belgium, Senegal; 56 minutes (2007).
    The setting is Oualata, the red city at the edge of the Mauritanian desert. In this place, an ephemeral shelter to protect from the sands, three women practice the art of traditional painting by decorating the walls of the city’s houses. In a society supposedly dominated by tradition, religion and men, these women express their way of perceiving the relationship between men and women with surprising freedom.

    Tekkere by Medina Ibrahima N’diaye; Documentary; Mauritania; 15 minutes; (2017).
    In recent years, Nouakchott has undergone a notable downturn in sanitary conditions, with piles of garbage giving off a foul smell that stinks up the population’s living space. Malick, a young sheep farmer from the district of Kebba, tries to do something about this blight by raising awareness, staging plays about the subject and clean-up days. With the help of Alpha, the fishmonger, and Khattary, the shopkeeper, who live across from the dump, they keep watch to dissuade garbage collectors and set up a monitoring and control committee at all the most sensitive spots.
  • Film: Heremakono (“Waiting for Happiness”)
    Film poster: Heremakono (“Waiting for Happiness”)

    Film: Heremakono (“Waiting for Happiness”)

    April 22, 20227:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: Tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation. You may only receive one discount. Sales in advance at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets. Mask use is required at all times.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    We continue our sessions in Casa Árabe’s schedule of Mauritanian films. On Friday, April 22, we will be showing a film by Abderrahmane Sissako.
    Heremakono (“Waiting for Happiness”) by Abderrahmane Sissako; Fiction; Mauritania; 95 minutes; original language version with Spanish subtitles; (2002) 
    Abdallah, a young Mauritanian boy, goes to pick his mother up in Nouadhibou, as he awaits his trip to Europe. In this place of exile where he does not understand the language, he attempts to decipher the world around him: Nana, a young woman who tries to seduce him; Makan, who dreams of traveling away like Abdallah; Maata, an old fisherman turned electrician; or the young, wide-eyed Khatra, who helps him out of isolation by teaching him the local dialect.

    Conversations crisscross and separate, but always with a fixed gaze on the horizon, awaiting some theoretical happiness...
  • Double feature session: “Achajara” and “Malouma, Diva of the Sands” (“Malouma, diva des Sables”)
    Film poster: “Malouma, Diva of the Sands”

    Double feature session: “Achajara” and “Malouma, Diva of the Sands” (“Malouma, diva des Sables”)

    April 29, 20227:30 p.m.
    MADRID
    Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62). 7:30 p.m. 5 euros: general tickets at the box office.
    4 euros: Tickets purchased online, the officially unemployed, Casa Árabe Language Center students and Youth Card holders, by showing the proper documentation. You may only receive one discount. Sales in advance at www.casaarabe.es up to the day of the screening at 12:00 p.m. Those tickets not sold online will be made available for purchase on the day of the screening at Casa Árabe’s headquarters, as of one hour before each screening (payment in cash or by debit/credit card). Assigned seats with tickets. Mask use is required at all times.
    Films shown in the original language version with subtitles in Spanish.
    We are now concluding Casa Árabe’s film series on Mauritanian cinema. This time we will be hosting a double feature movie session that includes a short-subject film by Cheikh Mohamed Horma and a documentary by Cheikh N’diaye.
    Achajara by Cheikh Mohamed Horma; Fictional short-subject film; Mauritania, Morocco; 9 minutes (2017)
    A lumberjack crosses the desert carrying his supplies. He contemplates the peace and quiet of nature. He grows tired and sits in the shade of a tree, alone in the empty space.

    “Malouma, Diva of the Sands” (“Malouma, diva des Sables”) by Cheikh N’diaye, Documentary, France, Mauritania; 53 minutes (2005)
    Malouma Mint Meidah is a well-known singer from Mauritania, heiress to a dynasty of poet-singers. Breaking with tradition, Malouma decides to defend women’s right to education with her songs. This decision will end up getting her expelled from her own country. After having performed on major international stages, Malouma goes on a concert tour in Mauritania for the first time in ten years. The film gives us the chance to discover the personality of this amazing singer, her music, her struggles and her country.


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