Screen/Society--2011 French Film Series--"A Screaming Man" (Un homme qui crie)
Film Screening:
A Screaming Man (Un homme qui crie)
(Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2010, 92 min, France/Chad, in French and Arabic with English subtitles, Color, 35mm)
-- Post-screening discussion with Le Monde journalist Philippe Bernard!
Shot in Chad, portraying the psychological fall-out of an endless civil war, A SCREAMING MAN is titled ironically, from a director who credits Ozu as his strongest influence. Adam is a former swimming medalist, now a 60-year-old hotel employee and head "pool man," who maintains this calm oasis as much for his own benefit as for the hotel's Western guests. The tensions between Adam and Abdel, his adult son, are exacerbated when he loses his job to the younger man and their fragile world begins to crumble. With subtlety and grace, Haroun's modern fable eschews histrionics for a smart, restrained, yet deeply feeling drama against the backdrop of Chad's civil war.
-- Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival!
Cost: Free and Open to the Public
Sponsors: The Center for French and Francophone Studies, the Department of Romance Studies, the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), the Duke University Center for International Studies, and the Program the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI).