It's not a movie you'd confuse with Transformers 3... A Screaming Man follows a pool attendant in Chad as he struggles with changing times and tears himself apart in the process. It's deathly slow with director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's camera resting for long periods on the protagonist's agonised face, but this drama is a strangely compelling one.
Adam (Djaoro) is the screaming man in question: for thirty years he has been a pool attendant at a well-to-do hotel in Chad (the first pool attendant in Chad apparently). A former champion swimmer (he's called 'champ' by his friends), Adam is forced to accept the changing tides when cutbacks at the hotel give his son Abdel (Koma) the sole pool attendant job while Adam is 'relegated' to that of gatekeeper. As rebel forces converge outside the city and the 'district chief' (M'bo) urging Adam to donate to the defence causes, Adam has only one thing in mind: getting back the job he calls his life.
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun sets his stall out theme-wise in the first scene. Abdel and Adam compete in a breath-holding competition in the pool with the old man losing by some distance. Growing old and watching a younger, better version of yourself pass you by is not easy; Adam is not ready to accept this idea yet and fights his quarter every inch of the way, a fight that sees him do a very despicable thing. The director likes to chop and change as the drama evolves: when we first meet Adam he's a kindly old man who is wary of his son's lethargic attitude to the job and is a shoulder to cry on when his friend, the hotel cook, is let go. As A Screaming Man develops, however, the audience becomes aware that they are feeling sympathy for what is a very selfish man. Transformers 3 it's not, but there are subtle transformations throughout.
Although backed up by a respectable supporting cast, this Youssouf Djaoro's film and he turns in a beautifully understated performance. A winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes last year, A Screaming Man won't fill one with the joys of humanity, but maybe there's hope to be found in its strive for redemption.
