Film

Daratt

Cert: PG

Description: Tale of retribution set on the streets of modern day Chad. Sixteen-year-old orphan Atim promises his ailing grandfather that he will track down the man responsible for his father's death. Heading for the capital, Ndjamena, Atim ingratiates himself to his target, a baker called Nassara, winning his prey's trust and befriending his pregnant wife Aicha as he plots his revenge.

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Dir: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun.

Cast: Ali Bacha Barkai, Youssouf Djaoro, Aziza Hisseine

Country: Chad/Fr/Bel/Aus.

Year: 2006.

Duration: 95mins

Exquisite movie with ludicrous premise

Tortured: Ali Bacha Barkai and Youssouf Djaoro in Daratt

Depiction of a desperate world

By Charlotte O'Sullivan
26 Jul 2007

While exquisitely shot, this third film from Chad auteur Mahamat-Saleh Haroun has a ludicrous premise.

A teenager, Atim (Ali Bacha Barkai) tracks down the man who killed his father during the civil war.

The man turns out to be a married baker called Nassara (Youssouf Djaoro), who takes in Atim despite the fact he's obviously packing heat, and shows him the ropes in the bakery.

Atim hovers like a hesitant Hamlet and only the talent and charisma of Djaoro makes the obvious symbolism snap into life.

As the neurotic, tortured and foolish Nassara, Djaoro casts a spell from the minute he puts an amplifying gadget to his throat (cut by someone else seeking revenge). The finale is very tense indeed.