Semi-autobiographical films from the Sahara’s foremost filmmakers explore the return of the exiled and the multiplicity of identity and landscape in the region.
The event showcases works by Med Hondo and Abderahmane Sissako that explore the identities and landscapes of the Sahara.
Taking the lead both behind and in front of the screen, these early films by two masters of cinema bring us on a voyage tracing their own personal trajectories of migration and exile, and the wider shared geo-history of the region and its diaspora.
In Life on Earth, a young emigré returns from France to a Malian oasis to bring in the millennium with family. Ballade aux sources, newly restored and played with its original orchestral soundtrack for the first time in the UK, sees filmmaker Med Hondo embark on a ‘mission transaharienne’, leaving vertiginous neon Paris for an overland descent from North to West Africa.
Ballade aux sources, Med Hondo, 1965, 25 mins U, no dialogue
Life on Earth, Abderahmane Sissako, 1998, 60 mins PG, in French and Bambara with English subtitles
Ticket prices
Students £11
Unwaged £11
Over 60s £11
Under 18s £6
Wheelchair spaces, free companion seats may now be booked online.
Please select the relevant preferences on the access registration page during your booking, so we can provide you with the correct information and discounts.
Booking a wheelchair space
Select a seat displaying the wheelchair user icon and then select 'wheelchair user' ticket type. The ticket will be priced at the lowest price for that event. If you need an essential companion, please select the E icon next to the wheelchair space you have selected.
Booking essential companion tickets
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Booking British Sign Language or Captioned Seats
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Booking fees
£1.50 booking fee per online/phone transaction.
No fee when tickets are booked in person.
Booking fees are per transaction and not per ticket. If your booking contains several events the highest booking fee will apply. The booking fee may be reduced on certain events. Members do not pay booking fees.
Programme
In La vie sur terre, a young emigré returns from France to a Malian oasis to bring in the millennium with family. Aimé Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism plays, as the villagers navigate a web of crossed wires spanning remittances, epistolary exchanges and missed calls between rivers and continents. A smitten Sissako cycles through jutting mud labyrinths and cruises the Niger, musing on questions of humanitarianism and modernisation that would come to define his later films.
Ballade aux sources, played with its original orchestral soundtrack for the first time in the UK, sees filmmaker Med Hondo embark on a ‘mission transahareinne’, leaving vertiginous neon Paris for an overland descent from North to West Africa. Revealing the gradation and interconnectedness of a continent and communities falsely split in two, the Sahara acts as a bridge rather than a division, along which Hondo partakes in local rituals and roams between imposing ancient monuments.
Give a year of art, music, film and theatre
Cinema 3
Location
Barbican Cinema 2 & 3 are located on Beech Street, a short walk from the Barbican’s Silk Street entrance. From Silk Street, you’ll see a zebra crossing that will take you across the road to the venue.
Address
Beech Street
London
EC2Y 8DS
Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.
We’ve plenty of places for you to relax and replenish, from coffee and cake to wood-fired pizzas and full pre-theatre menus
Access
Cinemas 2 & 3 are located at Beech Street, a short walk from the Barbican Centre’s main Silk Street entrance. There are a couple of steep, dropped kerbs and an incline to negotiate between the two sites. Level access from Beech Street.
Mobility
Each auditorium has three permanent wheelchair spaces (two in the third row and one in the front row) and 153 fixed seats with capacity for a further three spaces in the front row. Access to each auditorium is up a ramp. There are also a number of seats with step-free access.
Assistance dogs
Assistance dogs may be taken into the cinema – please tell us when booking to ensure your seat has enough space. If you prefer, you may leave your dog with a member of the foyer staff during the performance.
Hearing facility
An infrared system for hard of hearing customers is provided in each auditorium; headsets or neck loops can be collected from foyer staff. The ticket desk counter is fitted with an induction loop.
For more access information, please visit our Accessibility section.
