Please join us on Friday May 2, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. in Room 305 of the Weinberg Memorial Library for a free presentation of the Mauritanian/French drama Waiting for Happiness.  Dr. Annie Hounsokou will lead an engaging discussion following the film.

New Yorker Films describes Waiting for Happiness as the story of the diverse people of the small transit city of Nouadhibou in Mauritania which serves as a resting stop for people from all over the world. The lives of its inhabitants are pared down to two basic choices: adaptation or exile. In the latter category is Abdallah, a citified college student who temporarily returns home and, unable to speak or dress like a native, becomes painfully, comically alienated. Opposed to him is Khatra, an alert, curious boy apprenticed to the wizardly local electrician, who demonstrates how apparent oppositions (such as magic and technology, tradition and modernity) might be reconciled through improvisation and patience. Waiting for Happiness spins its overlapping stories and intersecting characters into a prismatic cascade of enigmas, epiphanies, deadpan gags, and haunting images: a light bulb glowing in the middle of the desert, a low window disclosing passersby from the knees down, huge ships bobbing in the offshore haze with the tantalizing promise of distant happiness.

 Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako Waiting for Happiness is in French and Hassanya with English subtitles.

This event is open to faculty, staff, students and the public. Please email sharon.finnerty@scranton.edu for reservations.