Entertainment

African son of a gun

A grand jury honoree at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, the movie stars Youssouf Djaoro as an African hotel worker.

“A Screaming Man” is a powerful anti-war movie that contains no battle scenes. And despite the title, there is no overt screaming.

Written and directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, the film is quiet and thoughtful, yet forcefully makes its point about the folly of war.

Adam, a one-time swimming champion everybody calls Champ, is the 55-year-old pool man at a luxury hotel for Westerners in Chad, an African nation that for 40 years has been embroiled in a real-life civil war.

Adam’s assistant is his own son, 20-ish Abdel. Their relationship is torn asunder when the resort is taken over by a Chinese company, which demotes Adam to gatekeeper and gives his pool job to Abdel.

“The pool’s my whole life,” says Adam, reminding viewers of the demoted doorman in F.W. Murnau’s “The Last Laugh” (1924).

As the civil war grinds on, the government is asking civilians to give money for its cause. Adam is penniless, so he gives the government something more dear than cash — arranging for his son to be “drafted” into the army.

Youssouf Djaoro is excellent as the dignified Adam, and Haroun’s direction is assured, especially in intimate scenes, such as one in which Adam shares a watermelon with his wife.

And we mustn’t forget the beautiful photography by Laurent Brunet.