By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca

Countdown To Cannes: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

Posted Monday, May 6th, 2013 - Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
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MAHAMAT-SALEH HAROUN

Background: Chadian; born N’Djamena, Chad, 1961.

Known for / style: Bye Bye Africa (1999), Our Father (2002), Dry Season (2006), A Screaming Man (2010); directing shorts and documentaries in addition to narrative features; casting non-actors; sensitive portrayals of childhood and maturation; setting and shooting his films in his home country.

Notable accolades: Haroun has done well for himself in the European prestige circuit, winning the Cannes Jury Prize in 2010 (A Screaming Man) as well as a number of awards at Venice (Dry Season won the UNESCO award, a Special Jury Prize, an EIUC award, and two honorable mentions in 2006; Bye Bye Africa won the title of Best First Film and a Luigi De Laurentiis Special Mention in 1999). In 2010, Haroun won both Venice’s Robert Bresson Award and São Paolo’s Humanity Prize.

Previous Cannes appearances: In 2002, Our Father played in the Director’s Fortnight down the street from the Competition. In 2010, however, Haroun’s A Screaming Man was pitted against his fellow Palme contenders, taking home the Jury Prize.

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: Grigris, a French- and Arabic-language drama following the eponymous character who aspires to be a professional dancer, despite a paralyzed leg. When his uncle is struck with a grave illness, Grigris accepts work from petrol traffickers to save him. The film features newcomers Anaïs Monory and Souleymane Démé, with known actors Cyril Gueï (Hitman), Marius Yelolo (Early Rising France), Fatimé Hadje (Dry Season) and Haroun favorite Youssof Djaoro (A Screaming Man, Dry Season).

Could it win the Palme? Though the 2013 Competition is an international event, Haroun is Africa’s only representative. And given Chad’s recent cultural renaissance—with the cinema being one of the ways locals have reclaimed their identity—a Cannes jury could feel good about giving Haroun an even bigger break than his 2010 jury prize, whether it’s the Grand Prix, Best Director, or the Palme itself. The prize can get political and some jury presidents don’t favor the Palme d’Or being simply a pat on the back for established auteurs. We already know that Spielberg is conscious of travesties in modern-day Africa, given his withdrawal as artistic advisor for the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Chinese president Hu Jintao failed to respond to Spielberg’s calls for Chinese aid in war-torn Darfur, a horrific conflict that leaked into Haroun’s home country of Chad in 2003). Without these external issues, however, Haroun’s Grigris could otherwise be an excellent film worthy of a prestigious film award—nothing more, nothing less.

Why you should care: Haroun is the champion of Chad’s cinema, supporting an arts scene in the face of violent unrest. But things have relatively stabilized in Chad following a brutal civil war, and with the success of A Screaming Man (and the reknown a Cannes jury prize bestows), the director has said a world-class film school is set to open there. “My award at Cannes has had an incredible effect,” said Haroun in an interview with the Africa Channel. “It has propelled the status and importance of cinema in Chad. Even to a political level, I’d say.”

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Posted in Cannes, Cannes Originals, MCN Originals, Movie City News | Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

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~ David Simon