Cannes film spotlights war-torn Chad (News Feature)

By Andrew McCathie May 16, 2010, 13:48 GMT

Cannes - It was a no mean feat for Mahamat Saleh Haroun to become the first filmmaker from Chad to be selected to join the Cannes Film Festival's prestigious main competition.

Apart from being one of the world's poorest countries, the African state has been gripped by a civil war for decades.

'There is considerable tension (in the country)', Haroun said at press conference, marking the premiere of his film Un Homme qui Crie (A Screaming Man) in Cannes.

'It was not a fun environment,' said Haroun, who was born in 1961 in the Chad capital N'Djamena, but has lived in France since 1982.

'When you are shooting a film you have to rise above the tension,' he said. 'But you include this tension in the film. It also helps to give a sense of urgency to making the film.'

Un Homme qui Crie represents the first time that a movie from Chad has been selected to join the race for Cannes' top award, the coveted Palme d'Or (Golden Palm).

Haroun's film tells the story of Adam, who is approaching sixty and is a pool attendant at a smart hotel in N'Djamena.

The hotel also represents a small island of calm in the war-torn country as the rebels tighten their grip.

Known as Champ, Adam loves his job. 'The pool is my life,' says Adam, who is played by Chadian actor Youssouf Djaoro. Adam also proudly points out that he was Chad's first swimming pool attendant.

So it hits him hard when the hotel's new owners demote him and he is forced to give up his job to his son, Abdel. Instead of his white dapper pool attendant's clothes he now wears an ill-fitting gatekeeper's suit.

Haroun's movie also provides a glimpse of daily life in the country, with military road blocks, curfews and the population forced to pay a contribution to the war effort against the rebels.

It is also a fitting backdrop to the inner turmoil that begins to eat away at Adam as the story unfolds and the calmness of the swimming pool becomes his refuge.

Ultimately the war and the grim economic state of the country force him to face up to himself and his inner conflict.

Adam is under pressure to make his contribution to fighting the war. But he is broke and he can't meet the payments. As a result, he is forced to make a decision with devastating consequences.

Haroun's third feature film, Daratt, which also touched on Chad's seemingly never-ending civil war, won the Venice Film Festival's Grand Special Jury Prize four years ago.

As is the case with other films screened in Cannes this year, at the heart of Haroun's film is the story of a father and son relationship.

'This war was perpetrated by men. It is not by women,' said Haroun. 'This is the kind of history that is handed down from father to son.'

Despite the continuing threat of violence and chaos throughout Un Homme qui Crie, the people in the film seem to accept their fate.

'Adam acts like he is in prison,' the director said. 'Adam is not a believer, but he wonders at one point whether god exists.'

'Whatever the country in Africa, they face the same problem with different nuances,' said Emil Abossolo, who plays a local official. 'It's the source of the adversity which is difficult to identify.'

'No country in Africa makes weapons to kill,' he said. 'So people ask: where are you god? Why have you abandoned us?'