A Screaming Man

A Screaming Man (French: Un homme qui crie) is a 2010 French-Chadian

A Screaming Man
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 inN'Djamena and Abéché. The film won the Jury Prize at
the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Contents
Plot
Cast
Themes
Production
Release Theatrical release poster
Critical response
Directed by Mahamat Saleh
Accolades
Haroun
References
Produced by Randy Florence
External links
Written by Mahamat Saleh
Haroun

Plot Starring Youssouf Djaoro

Music by Wasis Diop
Adam (Youssouf Djaoro), a former central African swimming champion, is the
pool attendant at a luxury hotel. He is known as Champ. As an economy Cinematography Laurent Brunet
measure Mrs. Wang, the manager, demotes him to gate security guard and his Edited by Marie-Hélène Dozo
son Abdel is made pool attendant. The local chief pressures Adam to give money Production Pili Films
towards Chad's fight against rebel forces, chastising him for not attending a company Goï Goï
cause meeting. The chief tells Adam of how he sent his 17-year-old son to fight Productions
in the war. He also tells Adam he has three days to pay money to support the
Distributed by Pyramide
cause. To regain his post Adam volunteers Abdel for the army and troops come
Distribution
to the family home to draft him. Adam resumes his job as pool attendant. A 17-
year-old woman, Abdel's pregnant de facto wife, arrives at Adam's home and is Release date 16 May 2010
taken in and cared for. The conflict worsens and the townspeople flee. Adam (Cannes Film
tells his daughter-in-law of his treachery and she breaks down. Adam rethinks Festival)
his position and takes his motorcycle with sidecar to the war zone to bring Abdel 29 September 2010
home. He finds Abdel seriously wounded- eye, neck, right arm and abdomen. (France)
That night Adam takes Abdel from the hospital, places him in the sidecar and
heads for home. On the journey Abdel says he wishes to swim in the river
. Abdel Running time 92 minutes
dies as they reach the river. Adam floats the corpse in the river which takes the Country France
body away. The End. Belgium
Chad
Cast Language French
 Arabic
Youssouf Djaoro as Adam
Diouc Koma as Abdel Budget € 2 million
Emile Abossolo M'Bo as district chief
Hadjé Fatimé N'Goua as Mariam
Marius Yelolo as David
Djénéba Koné as Djeneba

Themes
Adam's and Abdel's relationship 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."[1] 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."[1]

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".[2] Haroun says that the main character Adam is "screaming against the silence of God, it's not
a scream against adversity".[3]

Production
The idea for the film came in 2006 during the production ofDaratt. 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
[4]
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 fromCanal +, Canal Horizons, Ciné Cinéma andTV5MONDE.[2]

Filming took place during six weeks on location in Chad, starting 30 November 2009.[2] Many of the extras in the film were actual
hotel employees, tourists and soldiers who Haroun asked to perform as themselves for the sake of realism.[1] 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
[5]
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 Festival.[6] It was subsequently shown at
several festival venues including theToronto International Film Festival.[7] Pyramide Distribution released it in French theaters on 29
September 2010.[8]

Critical response
The film received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% out of 36 professional critics
gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.2/10.[9]
Thomas Sotinel reviewed the film for Le Monde. He thought it had an undeniable beauty, but continued, "This beauty 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."[10]

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
."[11]
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."[12]

Accolades
The film received the Cannes Film Festival's Jury Prize. 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.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] The film was nominated for a Magritte Award in the category of Best Foreign Film in Coproduction in 2012, but lost to
Romantics Anonymous.[16]

References
1. Aftab, Kaleem (21 July 2010)."Visible Africa: Cannes winner Mahamat-Saleh Haroun" (http://www.thenational.ae/art
s-culture/film/visible-africa-cannes-winner-mahamat-saleh-haroun?pageCount=0) . The National. Archived (https://w
ww.webcitation.org/5ycjF7TUN?url=http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/visible-africa-cannes-winner-mahamat
-saleh-haroun?pageCount=0)from the original on 12 May 2011. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
2. Lemercier, Fabien (2009-10-23)."Haroun readies to shoot Screaming Man"(https://www.webcitation.org/5yckQL3W
M?url=http://cineuropa.org/newsdetail.aspx?lang=en&documentID=114176) . Cineuropa. Archived from the original
(http://cineuropa.org/newsdetail.aspx?lang=en&documentID=114176)on 12 May 2011. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
3. Collett-White, Mike (16 May 2010)."Father-Son Film in War-Torn Chad Lights up Cannes"(https://af.reuters.com/arti
cle/chadNews/idAFLDE64E0D520100516?sp=true) . af.reuters.com. Thomson Reuters. Archived (https://www.webcit
ation.org/5ycjcGX3f?url=http://af.reuters.com/article/idAFLDE64E0D520100516) from the original on 12 May 2011.
Retrieved 2011-01-17.
4. Carpentier, Mélanie (May 2010). "Interview de Mahamat-Saleh Haroun"(http://www.evene.fr/cinema/actualite/maha
mat-saleh-haroun-homme-qui-crie-tchad-cannes-2717.php) . Evene (in French). Archived (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20100526124608/http://www.evene.fr/cinema/actualite/mahamat-saleh-haroun-homme-qui-crie-tchad-cannes-271
7.php) from the original on 26 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
5. Cuyer, Clément (29 September 2010)." 'Un homme qui crie' : rencontre avec Mahamat Saleh Haroun"(http://www.al
locine.fr/article/fichearticle_gen_carticle=18598029.html). AlloCiné (in French). Tiger Global. Archived (https://www.w
ebcitation.org/5yck3wFcj?url=http://www.allocine.fr/article/fichearticle_gen_carticle=18598029.html)from the original
on 12 May 2011. Retrieved 2010-10-29.
6. "The screenings guide"(http://www.festival-cannes.fr/assets/File/Web/HORAIRES%202010/Horaire%20Projections.
pdf) (PDF). festival-cannes.com. Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
7. "A Screaming Man" (http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2010/screamingman). tiff.net. Toronto International Film
Festival. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100803001155/http://tif
f.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2010/screaming
man) from the original on 3 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
8. "Un Homme qui crie" (http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=180361.html). AlloCiné (in French). Tiger
Global. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20100421000332/http://www .allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D18
0361.html) from the original on 21 April 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2010.
9. A Screaming Man - Rotten Tomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_screaming_man/)
10. Sotinel, Thomas (2010-09-29)." 'Un homme qui crie' : dans le chaos tchadien, la tragédie d'Adam, père déchu en
quête de rédemption" (https://archive.is/20101002083408/http://www .lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2010/09/28/un-homm
e-qui-crie-dans-le-chaos-tchadien-la-tragedie-d-adam-pere-dechu-en-quete-de-redemption_1417050_3476.html) . Le
Monde (in French). Archived fromthe original (http://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2010/09/28/un-homme-qui-crie-d
ans-le-chaos-tchadien-la-tragedie-d-adam-pere-dechu-en-quete-de-redemption_1417050_3476.html) on 2010-10-
02. Retrieved 2010-09-29. "Cette beauté est aussi fragile, parce que Mahamat Saleh Haroun n'a pas eu tout à fait
les moyens nécessaires à la pleine expression de sa vision. C'est d'autant plus rageant que la séquence de l'exode
de la population de N'Djamena montre bien que le cinéaste sait passer au grand format lorsque son propos le
commande"
11. Welter, Julien (28 September 2010)."Un homme qui crie" (http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/cinema/un-homme-qui-crie_
922958.html). L'Express (in French). Archived (https://www.webcitation.org/5yckC9rgM?url=http://www.lexpress.fr/cu
lture/cinema/un-homme-qui-crie_922958.html)from the original on 12 May 2011. Retrieved 2010-10-29. "Mahamat-
Saleh Haroun est plus que jamais un artiste à suivre."
12. Ebert, Roger (24 May 2010). "Cannes postmortem. Is that the wrong word?"(https://web.archive.org/web/20100527
090625/http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/05/cannes_post-mortem_or_is_that.html) . Chicago Sun-Times.
Archived from the original (http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/05/cannes_post-mortem_or_is_that.html)
on 27
May 2010. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
13. Chang, Justin (2010-05-23)." 'Uncle Boonmee' wins Palme d'Or"(http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118019731.htm
l?categoryid=13&cs=1). Variety. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
14. "46th Chicago International Film Festival Award Winners Announced"(https://www.webcitation.org/5yckJXZ6r?url=ht
tp://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/news/display_news.php?article=the_46th_chicago_international_film_festival_awar
d_winners_announced). Archived from the original (http://www.chicagofilmfestival.com/news/display_news.php?articl
e=the_46th_chicago_international_film_festival_award_winners_announced) on 12 May 2011.
15. Lemercier, Fabien (2011-01-17)."Of Gods and Men crowned Best Film at Lumières"(http://cineuropa.org/newsdetai
l.aspx?lang=en&documentID=194491). Cineuropa. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
16. Engelen, Aurore (10 January 2012)."Nominations announced for 2nd Magritte Awards" (http://cineuropa.org/nw.asp
x?t=newsdetail&l=en&did=213926). Cineuropa. Retrieved 12 January 2013.

External links
A Screaming Man on IMDb

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Screaming_Man&oldid=821558881

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