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Abouna (film)

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Abouna (Our Father)
DVD cover
Directed byMahamat Saleh Haroun
Written byMahamat Saleh Haroun
Produced byGuillaume de Seille
Abderrahmane Sissako
StarringAhidjo Mahamet Moussa
Hamza Moctar Aguid
Zara Haroun
Mounira Khalil
Diego Moustapha Ngarade
CinematographyAbraham Haile Biru
Edited bySarah Taouss Matton
Music byAli Farka Touré
Distributed byFilmmuseum Distributie (Netherlands)
Kairos Filmverleih (Germany)
Leisure Time Features (USA)
MK2 Diffusion (France)
Release date
  • 20 May 2002 (2002-05-20) (Cannes)
Running time
84 minutes
CountriesFrance
Chad
Netherlands
LanguagesChadian Arabic
French

Abouna (Arabic: أبونا, romanized‘Abūna, English: "Our Father") is a 2002 film by Chadian director Mahamat Saleh Haroun and is the story of two young brothers' search for their father. It was filmed on location in Gaoui and N'Djamena, Chad. It was the Chadian submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 75th Academy Awards but was not nominated.

Plot

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Two boys (Tahir and 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)

Casting and production

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Ahidjo Mahamat Moussa, who played the 15-year-old Tahir, was offered a choice of boys to play his younger brother Amine. He eventually chose eight-year-old Hamza Moctar Aguid because he felt that Aguid could really be his brother.

After each day for shooting, film was sent 2600 miles to Paris for processing. Only after waiting several days, when word came back that there were no problems, would shooting resume.[1]

Cast

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  • Ahidjo Mahamat Moussa as Tahir
  • Hamza Moctar Aguid as Amine
  • Zara Haroun as Achta (the mother)
  • Mounira Khalil as Mute girl
  • Diego Moustapha Ngarade as Uncle Adoum

Awards

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The film won the following awards:[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Abouna by Josh Hillman, BBC Four
  2. ^ Awards, IMDb
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