Daratt

This is an excellent film. I saw it a few weeks ago but I still keep replaying parts of it in my head. It is about a teenager named Akim whose father was killed before he was born during Chad's 40 year civil war. The film begins with Akim listening to the radio with his blind grandfather. Upon hearing the news that under a government amnesty, no one will be held accountable for anything that happened during the war, Akim is told by his grandfather to find the man who killed his father and take revenge.

Akim easily finds the man, Nassara, but can't quite bring himself to kill him. So he decides to bide his time and gather courage. Nassara hires Akim to work for his bakery service and begins to take a real liking to Akim so much so that he wants to adopt Akim.

Akim is full of hatred for Nassara but slowly warms to his tasks as a baker and consequently to Nassara as a father figure. The scene where Akim takes pride in baking his first good loaf of bread is an amazing one. Akim's conflicted feelings about Nassara are fully evident in this one wordless scene. Eventually, Akim is faced with a choice. Nassara insists that Akim take him to his village to ask for permission to adopt him. However, Akim's grandfather has other ideas for Nassara and still wants him dead. The last few minutes of this film are completely nervewracking.

This reminds me of last year's Mountain Patrol in that both are foreign films that are highly entertaining, completely original, and really really good. See this movie.

Directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
2006, Year of U.S Release: 2007
BAM