Born in Abéché, Chad, in 1960, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun lost his arm in the civil war, left for France as a young man, trained as a journalist and film-maker and became the best known director from Chad. His films look at the long wounds of civil war and the pressures of poverty. Abouna (2002) was a story of two brothers, and Daratt (2006), about a young man who goes to avenge his father's death and ends up working for the killer, won the Special Jury Prize at Venice. A Screaming Man (2010) won the Jury Prize at Cannes, the first from Chad, and Grigris (2013) competed for the Palme d'Or.
Filmography
- Bye Bye Africa (1999)
- Abouna (2002)
- Daratt (2006)
- A Screaming Man (2010)
- Grigris (2013)
- A Season in France (2017)
- Lingui, The Sacred Bonds (2021)