A Son’s Search Across the Sahara

Camels, sandstorms, scorpions and dunes towering like buildings are among Sidi’s earliest memories. Raised in a nomadic community on the edge of Mauritania’s Sahara, he grows up without the father the other children have — knowing Chighali only through the stories his mother tells him.

Years later, Sidi discovers that a foreign documentary crew once visited his community and may have captured his father on film. He sets out to recover the lost footage and see Chighali’s face for the first time — a journey that takes him far beyond the only home he has known, and becomes an intimate search for memory, identity and connection across generations.

August 2021   ·   Paperless