Abouna

I really felt like I got to know something about Amine and Tahir, as well as their African land and people. The cinematography is calm, reflective and colourful. It was interesting how the story skipped over climactic points, leaving it to the viewer to fill in what was being led up to.

Perhaps most remarkable is that the film held the complete attention of my seven year old brother. At one stage he said "I know where he left his medicine". This is proof that story still has power and that the non-stop eye candy of films like "Cars" is not all it's made out to be. Abouna is a story well told.

Jesus Christ this was boring.

I don't really know anything about the conditions of African cinema, but I can't imagine they exactly have a bustling industry, so I wouldn't want to go too hard on this.

But man it was boring.

The narrative forgets what it's doing every 20 minutes to go in a completely different direction, and doesn't end with any kind of satisfying resolution at all, the two brothers have virtually no character other than a desire to find their dad, and god is it shot so basically.

This is in addition to the fact that the younger kid's acting is frankly terrible, although everyone else is quite good, he does really drag down some scenes. There was one moment between these two kids that really came across as very realistic and genuine to me, as someone with a little brother, but that was kind of it.

I guess the soundtrack was okay too?

Oh well, sorry if this is considered a masterpiece of African cinema or something, but I didn't get along with it.

On the surface a simple, affecting tale of two sons' search for their absent father, Abouna is actually a film of some sophistication.

At one point the brothers visit a cinema. The posters outside advertise the African film Yaaba, Chaplin's The Kid and most notably Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise (hardly likely to be topping the bill in Chad). Other posters which would have been apt include "Pather Panchali", "Les Quatre Cent Coups" and any one of a number of recent Iranian movies.

Jarmusch's elliptical style of story-telling seems a particular influence, all of the obvious plot points (a kiss, a capture, a death) occur off-camera and the dialogue is more about what is not said than about what is. I do wonder a little whether an audience in Chad would buy this deadpan style or whether the film is really aimed at the First World art-house audience, but for me it works well.

There seems to be a metaphor in the idea of the absent father, perhaps relating to a country that the director feels has lost its way after many years of colonialism and war. The central family is not poor by African standards, but life is still harsh.

Much of the music is by the Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure, and you can really hear the African roots of the Blues in his playing. The images of landscape, skin, children playing are beautiful.

There can't be many countries in the world that the average Briton knows less about than Chad; indeed, when I saw this film on television, the announcer described the place as part of Cameroon! Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's film is thus interesting as a glimpse of a life rarely seen by westerners; and if at times the characters seem a little short of dialogue and motivation, the imagery is striking and the sentiments heartfelt. 'Abouna' doesn't feel like a finished, polished movie; but there's the talent of it's director is definitely on display, his use of stillness and silence partially offsetting the relative absence of conventional plot.

This movie confused me to no end. I consider myself pretty intellectual and cultured, so I hope it's not just me. I was enjoying it very much, the storyline was progressing beautifully, and the imagery was gorgeous. The performances of the two young boys, and the deaf-mute girl are also worth noting. Then all of a sudden the plot took a sudden turn I wasn't expecting, and I just became extremely confused, a feeling which settled in and remained for the last half of the film pretty much. I would recommend this movie to people who would enjoy it purely for its visual value, and I would not recommend it to people who get confused by most foreign films, because this one will definitely be over their heads.