Chadian films to sparkle at International Film Festival of Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram: Film buffs hoping for an exciting fare will not be disappointed when the 22nd International Film Festival of Kerala opens here on December 8. Movie director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, who “brought Chad to the world and vice versa” through his films, is one of the names in the ‘Contemporary filmmaker in focus’ category of the IFFK. Haroun was appointed minister of culture, art and tourism by Chadian president Idriss Deby earlier this year. But as a young man in the 80s, he and his family had left the central African country, which was torn by civil war, and lived in France for decades, where he also studied film. Even so, his films and documentaries have been mostly set in Chad.
His first film Bye Bye Africa made in 1999 is a docu-drama on a fictionalised version of his life. His second, Abouna, won awards, and was the first to be screened in Chad. Daratt, his third, got the Grand Special Jury Prize at Venice International Film Festival, and A Screaming Man won the jury prize at Cannes. His newest film, A Season in France, is the first set in his adopted country. The other contemporary filmmaker in focus this time is Mexican director Michel Franco, who rose to fame with the screening of his film After Lucia at Cannes in 2012 on the bitter experiences of a teenage girl. His newest, April’s Daughter, is again on a troubled teen girl.
Chronic, Daniel and Ana, and Through The Eyes are his other notable works. Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri’s The Insult is the opening film for the IFFK. The director who made the masterly drama, ‘The Attack’, comes back with ‘The Insult’ exploring the tension between two men belonging to different cultural backgrounds. A small issue gets blown out of proportion when Lebanese Christian Tony and Palestinian refugee Yasser have an exchange of words in today’s Beirut. It finally reaches the courtroom where a senior lawyer defends Tony and his daughter, Yasser. But when the case goes out of hand, and gets national attention, Tony and Yasser may just have to reconsider their prejudices.
