Tahir (15) and Amine (8) wake up one morning to learn that their father has left home. The brothers decide to go looking for him. One day, they see their father on the big screen and decide to steal the reel.

The lives of two brothers, who live in N'djamena, are upended when they awake one Saturday morning to find that their father has left the family. They are Amine, about eight years old, playful and asthmatic, and Tahir, 15, handsome, quiet, his brother's protector. The boys go in search of their father, and find only trouble. Dad's leaving also debilitates their mother. The movies, a musical uncle, a village Koran school, a poster of a Moroccan beach, and a young deaf woman figure in the resolution. Is there any place for happiness, or is happiness only in storybooks?—<[email protected]>