Dry Season

(Daratt, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad/France/Belgium/Austria 2006, 96 min., 35mm, Arabic and French w/subtitles)

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. Chad, 2006. The government has granted amnesty to all war criminals. Sixteen-year-old Atim is given a revolver by his grandfather so that he may kill the man who killed his father. Atim leaves his village for N’djamena, seeking a man he does not know. He quickly locates him: former war criminal Nassara is now married and settled down as the owner of a small bakery. With the firm intention of killing him, Atim gets closer to Nassara under the guise of looking for work. Intrigued by Atim’s attitude toward him, Nassara takes him under his wing and teaches him the secrets of making bread. Over the weeks, a strange relationship evolves between the two. A profoundly moving exploration of possibilities of reconciliation.