A Screaming Man (2011)

89% of critics liked it
(36 reviews)
54% of users liked it
(793 ratings)

Film Forum is pleased to present the U.S. theatrical premiere of A SCREAMING MAN, written and directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, beginning Wednesday, April 13. Shot in Chad, portraying the psychological fall-out of an endless civil war, A SCREAMING MAN is titled ironically, from a director who… More Film Forum is pleased to present the U.S. theatrical premiere of A SCREAMING MAN, written and directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, beginning Wednesday, April 13. Shot in Chad, portraying the psychological fall-out of an endless civil war, A SCREAMING MAN is titled ironically, from a director who credits Ozu as his strongest influence. Adam is a former swimming medalist, now a 60-year-old hotel employee and head "pool man," who maintains this calm oasis as much for his own benefit as for the hotel's Western guests. The tensions between Adam and Abdel, his adult son, are exacerbated when he loses his job to the younger man and their fragile world begins to crumble. Complicating their relationship is the fact that rebel forces are at war with the authorities, and civilians like Adam and Abdel are under pressure to support the government. With subtlety and grace, Haroun's modern fable eschews histrionics for a smart, restrained, yet deeply feeling drama in which personality, politics and place define its characters' reality. A SCREAMING MAN was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.--(c)Film Movement

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 32 min.
Directed By: Mahamet Saleh Haroun, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Written By: Mahamet Saleh Haroun
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Apr 13, 2011 Limited
On DVD: Aug 2, 2011
Studio: Film Movement

Critic Reviews

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
Director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's movie... shows the quiet desperation that results from inner and outer conflicts.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
The film is quiet and thoughtful, yet forcefully makes its point about the folly of war.
Manohla Dargis, New York Times
"A Screaming Man" is a quiet, tender, finally wrenching story of an individual at the intersection of the personal and the political.
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice
The characterizations never comfortably accommodate Haroun's pat metaphor, though his stoic visual storytelling has an oblique gravity, suggesting a slightly altered meaning to each surveying shot of the poolside patio.
Richard Brody, New Yorker
Ingenious and moving...
Peter Howell, Toronto Star
This tragedy of parental betrayal is personal in scope but universal in impact.
Joseph Proimakis, Movies for the Masses
full review at Movies for the Masses
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
One man's dark night of the soul brought on by civil war in Chad.
Alistair Harkness, Scotsman
It's a quietly devastating film, aided greatly by a haunting performance from Djaoro.
, Daily Express
Tenderly observed and admirably restrained, A Screaming Man builds into an austere, quietly haunting tragedy.
Philip French, Guardian [UK]
A Screaming Man is a quiet film about family life, the relationship between fathers and children, and the way generations can shape and reshape each other. It ultimately has a sublime quality.
Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
This is a powerful and depressingly downbeat drama that is often hard to watch, although the inexpressive nature of the main character means that it's difficult to fully engage on an emotional level.
Derek Malcolm, This is London
This is not only a good-looking, well directed and splendidly shot and acted film. It is an unforgettable snapshot of a failed country, and one of the best films in London at the moment.
Emma Simmonds, Little White Lies
Engrossing and enlightening but it doesn't quite live up to its considerable promise.
Steve Rose, Guardian [UK]
Betrayal, guilt, denial, faith and secrecy all roil about beneath the film's placid, almost wordless surface, which is beautifully observed with a stately, Ozu-like calmness.
Trevor Johnston, Radio Times
The director's style is certainly deliberate, but the gradual build-up of events is undeniably thought-provoking, played out in images of stark beauty as Adam's personal odyssey reaches a powerful and moving conclusion.
Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
Haroun deploys no rhetoric at all. His cinema is as mute as Bresson, yet as incandescent.
Dave Calhoun, Time Out
It's an intelligent, good-looking film and one that confirms Haroun as one of Africa's leading filmmakers.
Philip Kemp, Total Film
A moving, compassionate film, shot with near Ozu-like restraint.
William Thomas, Empire Magazine
Beautifully understated, Haroun gives his story room to breathe and the tenderness to touch the heart. A thoughtful tale of fathers and sons.

Read all 25 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Jim H

A former swimming champion is replaced by his son as the pool attendant at a posh Chadian hotel. I understand why this film got rave reviews. There is a quiet power to Emile Abossolo-M'bo's performance, and the filmmaking is full of subtle moments of his character's… More
A former swimming champion is replaced by his son as the pool attendant at a posh Chadian hotel. I understand why this film got rave reviews. There is a quiet power to Emile Abossolo-M'bo's performance, and the filmmaking is full of subtle moments of his character's quiet desperation. And the film doesn't make an overt, in-your-face political point, but by the end, we can't escape the folly of war. But the film is remarkably slow. One moment of strong acting is also an example of the film's main flaw: the camera starts at a three-quarter shot of Adam, and over the course of about forty-five seconds, it zooms in to a extreme close-up just as a tear forms in Adam's right eye. It takes an amazing amount of talent for an actor to make that work, and even though M'bo does, it's an incredibly long way to travel for the payoff. If this were the only slow moment in the film, I'd be raving, but cumulatively, there are at least fifteen minutes composed of Adam walking down the same streets he later rides a motorcycle down. And on and on. When Stanley Kubrick employed some of the same camerawork, it built suspense; when director Mahamet Saleh Haroun tries these tricks, it's too much, comprising a film that is tortuously slow. Overall, I'm sympathetic to the film's political points and subtle filmmaking, but if only there were a character with youthful energy (Adam's son is a prime candidate), then it would balance the film's overall meandering style.