By the new millennium, African cinema had covered so many subjects – post-colonial confusion, rage, the mythic past, feminism, the farce of the new regimes, surrealism, comedy and tragedy. Then came this film with the texture of velvet by Mauritanian master director Abderrahmane Sissako. It’s about a group of people waiting, drifting: loners, people longing for elsewhere or nowhere. When it debuted in Cannes, many rightly thought of it as a tonal masterpiece. The gorgeous music weaves a tapestry with the patterned imagery to make a languorous mood piece – gentle, resigned and lovely.

Screening as part of Stories From Africa (October6th – 22nd).