Chad / France,
1999, 86 min
Shown in 2000
CREDITS
- dir
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Mahamet Saleh Haroun
- prod
-
Claude Gilaizeau
- scr
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Mahamet Saleh Haroun
- cam
-
Stéphane Legous
- editor
-
Sarah Taouss
- cast
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Mahamet Saleh Haroun, Aïcha Yelena, Garba Issa
- source
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Les Productions de la Lanterne, 8, avenue de la Porte de Montrouge, 75014 Paris, France. FAX: 33-1-45-39-02-96
-
COMMENTS
Mahamet Saleh Haroun in person.
OTHER
Bye Bye Africa begins on a deeply personal note, with a late-night phone call from Chad notifying filmmaker Mahamet Saleh Haroun of his mother’s death. What follows is a blend of fiction and nonfiction that examines the dilemma of an expatriate who loves his country, but finds it almost impossible to live and work there. Once back in Chad, Haroun must deal not only with grief and guilt but also with a surviving parent who doesn’t understand his work. “Your films are not made for us,” his father says kindly, but frankly. “They are for the whites.” When Haroun starts scouting locations for a new film, Bye Bye Africa expands into a portrait of a filmmaker struggling to work in a country he scarcely recognizes. A recent war has destroyed movie theaters and the distribution system, producers are willing but have little money to offer and soldiers are a constant, menacing presence. Meanwhile, he confronts the question of how his movies affect those who don’t have the option of living elsewhere and those who are unable to distinguish fiction from reality, as evidenced by the experience of an actress who has been ostracized for playing an AIDS victim in one of his earlier films. Exile, loyalty, art and responsibility are deftly woven together, creating an affectionate and realistic portrait of Haroun and his homeland.
—Pam Troy
FACTOID #217
A sporadic SFIFF tradition, fashion shows are lighthearted affairs that help raise funds for the Festival. In 1968, Oakland designer Richard Tam mounted a show at the Fairmont Hotel that attracted high society; the Examiner commented that the show ’combined Tam’s simple daytime elegance with his almost theatrical evening gowns.’
