Waiting For Happiness

It's not that Waiting For Happiness is a bad film, because it isn't. It's just incredibly dull.

Set in the hottest of deserts in Africa, the film follows the young Abdallah (Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamed), as he returns home to bid farewell to his mother before embarking on a journey to Europe. Back in the bosom of his family, he is witness to the antics of their charismatic neighbours.

While the story sounds simple and interesting when told, on the big screen it is a different matter. The characters don't do anything apart from sit there. The most endearing cast member is a young orphan boy, who has ambitions to be an electrician. Most of the laughs are thanks to him.

Abderrahmane Sissako is known as a leading force in African filmmaking and there is little doubting why. He may have dug a hole with this self-penned script, but the images he brings to the screen are amazing. The landscape is truly beautiful and he uses it to his advantage, along with folk-music of the region.

Waiting For Happiness is the kind of film that will appeal to people with a penchant for bleak, gritty, naturalistic dramas. Definitely not for your average cinemagoer, unless he or she is tired and needing a sleep.