Abouna (film)

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Abouna (Our Father)
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 (

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 75th Academy Awards
but was not nominated.

Plot

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

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

  • 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

The film won the following awards:[2]

  • 2002 Hong Kong International Film Festival: Firebird Award – Special Mention
  • 2002
    FIPRESCI
    Prize and Golden Crow Pheasant
  • 2003
    Ouagadougou Panafrican Film and Television Festival
    : Baobab Seed Award, Best Cinematography, INALCO Award and UNICEF Award for Childhood

See also

  • List of Chadian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

References

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

External links