''Bye Bye Africa'' is a 1999 award-winning
Chadian film. It was the first by
Chadian director
Mahamat Saleh Haroun
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (; ar, محمد الصالح هارون) was born in 1961 in Abéché, Chad. He is a film director from Chad. He left Chad during the civil wars of the 1980s. Haroun is the first Chadian full-length film director. He both wri ...
, who also starred. The docu-drama centers on a fictionalized version of Haroun.
Plot
A Chadian film director who lives and works in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
(Haroun) returns home upon the death of his mother. He is shocked at the degraded state of the country and the national cinema. Encountering skepticism from his family members about his chosen career, Haroun tries to defend himself by quoting
Jean-Luc Godard: "The cinema creates memories." The filmmaker decides to make a film dedicated to his mother entitled ''Bye Bye Africa'' but immediately encounters major problems. Cinemas have closed and financing is impossible to secure. The director reunites with an old girlfriend (Yelena), who was shunned by Chadians who could not distinguish between film and reality after appearing in one of his previous films as an
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
victim. Haroun learns about the destruction of the
African cinema
Cinema of Africa is both the history and present of the making or screening of films on the African continent, and also refers to the persons involved in this form of audiovisual culture. It dates back to the early 20th century, when film reels w ...
from directors in neighboring countries, but also finds
Issa Serge Coelo shooting his first film, ''
Daressalam''. Things go badly and, convinced that it is impossible to make films in Africa, Haroun departs Chad, leaving his film camera to a young boy who had been assisting him.
Awards
The film won the following awards:
Awards
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
* 1999 Amiens International Film Festival: Special Mention in the category Best Feature Film
* 2000 Kerala International Film Festival: FIPRESCI Prize (tied with Deveeri (1999))
* 1999 Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...
:'CinemAvvenire' Award in the category Best First Film, Luigi De Laurentiis Award - Special Mention
Notes and references
External links
Description by U.S. distributor
*
Chadian drama films
1999 films
Films directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Films set in Chad
1999 directorial debut films
Chadian documentary films
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