A Screaming Man
Encyclopedia
A Screaming Man is a 2010 French
-Chadian
drama film by Mahamat Saleh Haroun
, starring Youssouf Djaoro
and Diouc Koma. It revolves around the current civil war in Chad, and tells the story of a man who sends his son to war in order to regain his position at an upscale hotel. Themes of fatherhood and the culture of war are explored. Principal photography took place on location in N'Djamena
and Abéché
. The film won the Jury Prize
at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
.
), a former central African swimming champion, is the security guard at the swimming pool of an expensive hotel. As conflict looms, he is demoted to the post of gate security guard, his son Abdel taking is former job at the pool.
The local chief pressures Adam into supporting Chad's fight against rebel forces, chastising him for not attending a cause meeting. The chief tells Adam of how he sent his 17 year old son to fight in the war. He also tells Adam he has three days to pay money to support the cause.
In desperation, Adam volunteers Abdel for the army. Troops come to the family's home to forcibly collect Abdel, informing his mother he has been drafted.
Adam resumes his job as pool attendant. A young woman presents herself at Adam and his wife's home, telling them she is Abdel's girlfriend and is expecting his child. They take her in as their daughter.
The conflict worsens and the towns people begin to flee.
Adam travels to liberate Abdel from the army. He finds Abdel badly wounded and smuggles him out under the cover of night. On the journey home Abdel says he wishes to swim in the river. Adam takes him to the river to discover he has died upon arrival.
Adam floats Abdel's body off down the river.
The film's title is a quotation from the poetry collection Return to My Native Land by Aimé Césaire
. The full sentence is "A screaming man is not a dancing bear". Haroun says that the main character Adam is "screaming against the silence of God, it's not a scream against adversity".
. On 13 April rebel forces entered N'Djamena, the Chadian capital, where Haroun was filming, and production was immediately put on hold. The film crew, including the young lead actor who was turning 18 on the very day, were trapped in the desert with no means of communication. This inspired Haroun to try to capture the feeling of imprisonment he experienced during the event.
The French company Pili Films and Chad's Goï Goï Productions produced the film together. Additional co-production support was provided by the Belgian company Entre Chiens et Loups. The two million euro budget included support from the French National Center of Cinematography, and pre-sales investment from Canal +, Canal Horizons, Ciné Cinéma and TV5MONDE
.
Filming took place during six weeks on location in Chad, starting 30 November 2009. Many of the extras in the film were actual hotel employees, tourists and soldiers whom Haroun asked to perform as themselves for the sake of realism. The director recounted the filming in N'Djamena as unproblematic. However when the crew filmed in Abéché
, a stronghold for rebel forces, there was a constant fear among everybody involved in the production. Haroun saw it as a challenge to finish the film before something would happen, while he also tried to take advantage of the genuine tension on the set.
. It was subsequently shown at several festival venues including the Toronto International Film Festival
. Pyramide Distribution released it in French theaters on 29 September 2010.
. He thought it had an undeniable beauty, but continued, "This beauty is is also fragile, because Mahamat Saleh Haroun didn't have quite all the necessary resources for the full expression of his vision. It is especially annoying that the sequence with the exodus of N'Djamena's population well shows that the filmmaker can switch to grand format when his subject commands it." Julien Welter of L'Express
appreciated Haroun's choice of neither making a large-scale analysis of the conflict in Chad, nor a melodrama about the suffering it has brought. Welter's main concern was that he thought the quality of the script dropped during the third act, but ended the review by proclaiming Haroun as "more than ever an artist to follow."
American film critic Roger Ebert
stated that he "greatly admired" the film, noting, "The unique quality of the movie is to look at Adam's life, the way he values his job almost more than his son, and the way status conferred by a Western hotel has bewitched him."
. This made Haroun not only the first Chadian director to have a film in the main competition, but also the first to win one of the festival's awards. A Screaming Man won the Silver Hugo for best screenplay at the 46th Chicago International Film Festival
. Youssouf Djaoro was awarded the Silver Hugo for best actor. At the 2011 Lumière Awards, decided by foreign journalists based in Paris, the film won the prize for Best French-Language Film from outside France.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
-Chadian
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
drama film by Mahamat Saleh Haroun
Mahamat Saleh Haroun
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun is a film director from Chad who has lived in France since 1982. He made his first feature film, Bye Bye Africa, in 1999. His second feature, Abouna, won best cinematography award at FESPACO, while his third, Daratt, won the Grand Special Jury Prize at the 63rd Venice...
, starring Youssouf Djaoro
Youssouf Djaoro
Youssouf Djaoro is a Chadian film actor.He made his debut by appearing in the film Daresalam in 2000 in which he played the character of Tom. It was directed by the critically acclaimed Issa Serge Coelo and was the first of several films they have collaborated with...
and Diouc Koma. It revolves around the current civil war in Chad, and tells the story of a man who sends his son to war in order to regain his position at an upscale hotel. Themes of fatherhood and the culture of war are explored. Principal photography took place on location in N'Djamena
N'Djamena
N'Djamena is the capital and largest city of Chad. A port on the Chari River, near the confluence with the Logone River, it directly faces the Cameroonian town of Kousséri, to which the city is connected by a bridge. It is also a special statute region, divided in 10 arrondissements. It is a...
and Abéché
Abéché
-Demographics:Demographic evolution:-References:...
. The film won the Jury Prize
Jury Prize (Cannes Film Festival)
The Jury Prize is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival. It is considered the third most prestigious prize at the film festival, after the Palme d'Or and the Grand Prix....
at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
2010 Cannes Film Festival
The 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 12 to May 23, 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films screened in and out of competition during the...
.
Plot
Adam (Youssouf DjaoroYoussouf Djaoro
Youssouf Djaoro is a Chadian film actor.He made his debut by appearing in the film Daresalam in 2000 in which he played the character of Tom. It was directed by the critically acclaimed Issa Serge Coelo and was the first of several films they have collaborated with...
), a former central African swimming champion, is the security guard at the swimming pool of an expensive hotel. As conflict looms, he is demoted to the post of gate security guard, his son Abdel taking is former job at the pool.
The local chief pressures Adam into supporting Chad's fight against rebel forces, chastising him for not attending a cause meeting. The chief tells Adam of how he sent his 17 year old son to fight in the war. He also tells Adam he has three days to pay money to support the cause.
In desperation, Adam volunteers Abdel for the army. Troops come to the family's home to forcibly collect Abdel, informing his mother he has been drafted.
Adam resumes his job as pool attendant. A young woman presents herself at Adam and his wife's home, telling them she is Abdel's girlfriend and is expecting his child. They take her in as their daughter.
The conflict worsens and the towns people begin to flee.
Adam travels to liberate Abdel from the army. He finds Abdel badly wounded and smuggles him out under the cover of night. On the journey home Abdel says he wishes to swim in the river. Adam takes him to the river to discover he has died upon arrival.
Adam floats Abdel's body off down the river.
Cast
- Youssouf DjaoroYoussouf DjaoroYoussouf Djaoro is a Chadian film actor.He made his debut by appearing in the film Daresalam in 2000 in which he played the character of Tom. It was directed by the critically acclaimed Issa Serge Coelo and was the first of several films they have collaborated with...
as Adam - Diouc Koma as Abdel
- Emile Abossolo M'BoEmile Abossolo M'BoEmile Abossolo M'Bo is a French television, theatre and film actor who has played in French, African and American productions.-Personal life:Abossolo was born in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon....
as district chief - Hadjé Fatimé N'Goua as Mariam
- Marius Yelolo as David
- Djénéba Koné as Djeneba
Themes
Adam's and Abdel's relation is the main focus of the film's story, and according to the director it relates to modern day Chad: "Between the father and the son is the transportation of memory, genes, and culture. It’s particularly important here because men conduct the war in Chad. The unrest in Chad has lasted 40 years and it’s the father who has transmitted the culture of war to his son, because otherwise there is no reason for the son to get involved." Mahamat Saleh Haroun intentionally resisted from going into detail about the civil war in Chad and politics: "The film recounts the point of view of this character and he hasn't got a position with the rebels or the government; to his life the two forces are abstract and so it would not matter if he was for the rebels or the government as this would not stop the war."The film's title is a quotation from the poetry collection Return to My Native Land by Aimé Césaire
Aimé Césaire
Aimé Fernand David Césaire was a French poet, author and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the négritude movement in Francophone literature".-Student, educator, and poet:...
. The full sentence is "A screaming man is not a dancing bear". Haroun says that the main character Adam is "screaming against the silence of God, it's not a scream against adversity".
Production
The idea for the film came in 2006 during the production of DarattDaratt
Daratt is a 2006 film by Chadian director Mahamat Saleh Haroun.The film was one of seven films from non-Western cultures commissioned by Peter Sellars' New Crowned Hope Festival to commemorate the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
. On 13 April rebel forces entered N'Djamena, the Chadian capital, where Haroun was filming, and production was immediately put on hold. The film crew, including the young lead actor who was turning 18 on the very day, were trapped in the desert with no means of communication. This inspired Haroun to try to capture the feeling of imprisonment he experienced during the event.
The French company Pili Films and Chad's Goï Goï Productions produced the film together. Additional co-production support was provided by the Belgian company Entre Chiens et Loups. The two million euro budget included support from the French National Center of Cinematography, and pre-sales investment from Canal +, Canal Horizons, Ciné Cinéma and TV5MONDE
TV5MONDE
TV5MONDE is a global television network, broadcasting several channels of French language programming. It is an approved participant member of the European Broadcasting Union.-History:...
.
Filming took place during six weeks on location in Chad, starting 30 November 2009. Many of the extras in the film were actual hotel employees, tourists and soldiers whom Haroun asked to perform as themselves for the sake of realism. The director recounted the filming in N'Djamena as unproblematic. However when the crew filmed in Abéché
Abéché
-Demographics:Demographic evolution:-References:...
, a stronghold for rebel forces, there was a constant fear among everybody involved in the production. Haroun saw it as a challenge to finish the film before something would happen, while he also tried to take advantage of the genuine tension on the set.
Release
A Screaming Man premiered on 16 May 2010 in competition at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival2010 Cannes Film Festival
The 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 12 to May 23, 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films screened in and out of competition during the...
. It was subsequently shown at several festival venues including the Toronto International Film Festival
2010 Toronto International Film Festival
The 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival, was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 9 and September 19, 2010. The opening night gala presented Score: A Hockey Musical, a Canadian comedy-drama musical film. Last Night closed the festival on September 19.2010 TIFF included...
. Pyramide Distribution released it in French theaters on 29 September 2010.
Critical response
Thomas Sotinel reviewed the film for Le MondeLe Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
. He thought it had an undeniable beauty, but continued, "This beauty is is also fragile, because Mahamat Saleh Haroun didn't have quite all the necessary resources for the full expression of his vision. It is especially annoying that the sequence with the exodus of N'Djamena's population well shows that the filmmaker can switch to grand format when his subject commands it." Julien Welter of L'Express
L'Express (France)
L'Express is a French weekly news magazine. When founded in 1953 during the First Indochina War, it was modelled on the US magazine TIME.-History:...
appreciated Haroun's choice of neither making a large-scale analysis of the conflict in Chad, nor a melodrama about the suffering it has brought. Welter's main concern was that he thought the quality of the script dropped during the third act, but ended the review by proclaiming Haroun as "more than ever an artist to follow."
American film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
stated that he "greatly admired" the film, noting, "The unique quality of the movie is to look at Adam's life, the way he values his job almost more than his son, and the way status conferred by a Western hotel has bewitched him."
Accolades
The film received the Cannes Film Festival's Jury PrizeJury Prize (Cannes Film Festival)
The Jury Prize is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival. It is considered the third most prestigious prize at the film festival, after the Palme d'Or and the Grand Prix....
. This made Haroun not only the first Chadian director to have a film in the main competition, but also the first to win one of the festival's awards. A Screaming Man won the Silver Hugo for best screenplay at the 46th Chicago International Film Festival
Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America....
. Youssouf Djaoro was awarded the Silver Hugo for best actor. At the 2011 Lumière Awards, decided by foreign journalists based in Paris, the film won the prize for Best French-Language Film from outside France.