A meditative Sunday evening with Hotel Sahara.
As we arrived we were informed that unfortunately the Q+A had been cancelled due to flight problems; a bit of a shame, but in spite of the news everyone snuggled down into the Cine Lumière’s comfortable seats and waited for the film to begin.
It was an intimate night for those that ventured out to South Kensington on a Sunday evening, and a deeply moving and thoughtful film that questioned why our world is so divided, why we have erected so many boundaries over our land, and why it is that some people are more free than others.
Bettina Haasen’s film followed five hopeful African migrants as they dream about life in Europe, unsure when, and if, their boat is ever going to come, whether they will make it across alive, and yet remain courageously optimistic that their dream for a better life will succeed.
The character’s views on life in Europe, brimming with misplaced romanticism, made me deeply sad:
‘I think it is very cold there,’ one young migrant said to the camera, ‘the roads are good, and it is not dirty like in Africa. People are happy, it is a good life’.
As the auditorium fell into blackness the atmosphere was quiet and profoundly meditative in the film’s wake.
