The Invitation

The desert is calling. Yet, it is with the ocean that Fabrizio Maltese’s journey begins. He has accepted Abderrahmane Sissako’s invitation to continue the film he and Pol Cruchten had initiated together. Pol has since passed away. The project he had been dreaming of has thus taken on a new, symbolic dimension. It must see the light of day. This is why Fabrizio has traveled on his own to meet with the Mauritanian director. But fate seems to have decided otherwise. From Saint Louis in Senegal to Nouakchott in Mauritania, from Mata Moulana to Chinguetti, Fabrizio allows himself to get lost alone in the desert, with nothing more than a few scribbled notes jotted down on the piece of paper that was given to him by the two filmmakers. Through windswept dunes and shaded palm groves, in the shelter of a mud hut or above wetland water lilies, we come to understand that the journey’s guide is not the one we expected. It is alongside Pol’s spirit that we now walk the rocky road. Leathery skins and sandy parchments, surprise encounters and missed appointments, the vastness of the desert becomes a mirror in which to discover our unexpected quests and look deeper into ourselves. And Fabrizio’s film, a way to unite the souls of his two traveling companions yet again.