Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
We follow four Sudanese filmmakers on their journey through dusty archives and bureaucratic institutions. Their dream: To bring cinema back to Sudan.
Composed by eleven short-movies. Started in 2018, the project explore in a sensible and creative way the position of humankind and nature. The key stories illustrated by the eleven internationally recognized filmmakers reflect the intertwined relations between human society and natural environment that are aggravated by climate change on multiple dimensions and scales, hinting at possible solutions.
An African high school teacher flees his war-torn country for France, where he falls in love with a Frenchwoman who offers a roof for him and his family.
In 2013, former Chadian dictator Hissein Habré’s arrest in Senegal marked the end of a long combat for the survivors of his regime. Accompanied by the Chairman of the Association of the Victims of the Hissein Habré Regime, Mahamat Saleh Haroun goes to meet those who survived this tragedy and who still bear the scars of the horror in their flesh and in their souls. Through their courage and determination, the victims accomplish an unprecedented feat in the history of Africa: that of bringing a Head of State to trial.
Staying up day and night and occupying a hairdressing salon at 57 Bd de Strasbourg in Paris, eighteen undocumented workers are on strike since May 22, 2014, protesting against human trafficking and the local mafia.
Present-day Chad. Adam, fifty something, a former swimming champion, is the pool attendant at a N'Djamena hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new Chinese owners, he is forced to give up his job to his son Abdel. Terribly resentful, he feels socially humiliated. The country is in the throes of a civil war. Rebel forces are attacking the government. Authorities demand that the population contribute to the war effort, giving money or volunteers old enough to fight off the rebels. The District Chief constantly harasses Adam for his contribution. But Adam is penniless; he only has his son.
Call for the regularization by the French government of all undocumented workers living in the country, a short film co-directed by 320 filmmakers and directors, producers, distributors and cinema owners.
Moussa attempts to cross the desert to escape his debts, only to return to his village defeated and dejected.
An extramarital affair leads to Hortense’s separation from her very traditional African husband, who is in for a ride as he learns about her love affair, his eldest son’s secret love life, and the responsibilities of single parenthood.
Chad, 2006. After a forty-year civil war, the radio announces the government has just amnestied the war criminals. Outraged by the news, Gumar Abatcha orders his grandson Atim, a sixteen-year-old youth, to trace the man who killed his father and to execute him. Atim obeys him and, armed with his father's own gun, he goes in search of Nassara, the man who made him an orphan. It does not take long before he finds him. Nassara, who now goes straight, is married, goes to the mosque and owns a small bakery. After some hesitation Atim offers him his services as an apprentice. He is hired then it will be easy for him to gun down the murderer of his father. At least, that is what he thinks...
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun lost his close friend and collaborator Hissein Djibrine (nicknamed 'Kalala' after the Congolese footballer) to Aids in 2003. he returned to Chad to make this personal, cathartic documentary as an expression of his grief to unravel the facts about Kalala's death and to honour his memory.
Tradition and AIDS in Africa. What to do when the respect of tradition is at odds with the community's health?
Two boys (Tamir & Amine) awake one morning to find that their father has abandoned their family. Shocked, they begin to misbehave. While surreptitiously watching a movie, they think they see their father speaking to them and steal the film to examine the frames. Their mother (Achta) eventually despairs and sends them to Koranic school. Unhappy, they plan their escape until the eldest boy falls in love with a deaf girl (Khalil).
A Chadian film director who lives and works in France (Haroun) returns home upon the death of his mother. He is shocked at the degraded state of the country and the national cinema. The filmmaker decides to make a film dedicated to his mother entitled Bye Bye Africa but immediately encounters major problems. Cinemas have closed and financing is impossible to secure. The director reunites with an old girlfriend (Yelena), who was shunned by Chadians who could not distinguish between film and reality after appearing in one of his previous films as an HIV victim. Haroun learns about the destruction of the African cinema from directors in neighboring countries, but also finds Issa Serge Coelo shooting his first film, Daressalam. Things go badly and, convinced that it is impossible to make films in Africa, Haroun departs Chad in despair, leaving his film camera to a young boy who had been assisting him.
Thirty-year-old Amina, a practicing Muslim, lives alone with her only child, the fifteen-year-old Maria. When Amina learns Maria is not only pregnant but wishes to abort the child, the two women face an impossible situation in a country where abortion is legally and morally condemned.
Set on the outskirts of N’Djamena in Chad, Amina lives alone with her only 15-year-old daughter Maria. Her already fragile world collapses the day she discovers that her daughter is pregnant. The teenager does not want this pregnancy. In a country where abortion is not only condemned by religion, but also by law, Amina finds herself facing a battle that seems lost in advance.
