Bye Bye Africa

Bye Bye Africa
Screenshot
Directed by	Mahamat Saleh Haroun
Written by	Mahamat Saleh Haroun
Starring	Mahamat Saleh Haroun Garba Issa Aïcha Yelena Abakar Mahamat-Saleh
Music by	Al-hadj Ahmat dit Pecos, Issa Bongo, Ringo Efoua-Ela
Cinematography	Stephane Legoux, Mahamat Saleh Haroun
Edited by	Sarah Taouss Matton
Distributed by	California Newsreel (USA) Les Histoires Weba (France)
Release dates	20 May 2002 (Cannes Film Festival premiere)
Running time	86 minutes
Language	Arabic, French
Budget	~USD100,000

Bye Bye Africa is a 1999 award winning Chadian film. It was the first by Chadian director Mahamat Saleh Haroun, who also starred. The docu-drama centers on a fictionalized version of Haroun.

Plot

A Chadian film director who lives and works in France (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 victim. Haroun learns about the destruction of the African cinema 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 in despair, leaving his film camera to a young boy who had been assisting him.

Awards

The film won the following awards:

• 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:'CinemAvvenire' Award in the category Best First Film, Luigi De Laurentiis Award - Special Mention

External links

• Description by U.S. distributor
• Bye Bye Africa at IMDb