Our Father

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.

There is no doubt that "Abouna" (Our Father) is a good African film as it features extremely fine performances from its young actors about a tragic tale which is both inspirational as well as entertaining.As far as inspirational material is concerned,there is a lot to learn in "Abouna" for two brothers named Tahir and Amine as their fragile, innocent lives are transformed as a result of a sudden,unexpected disappearance of their father.One can say that African cinema is full of many ignored masters of cinema.This is the reason why a film based in Africa can never be devoid of cinema.This has been depicted in this film by showing a cinema hall with posters of many great films.It is really a miracle of sorts that Chadian filmmaker Mahamat Saleh Haroun was able to make this film despite numerous financial hardships.As Abouna has been hailed at many film festivals all over the world,it can be said that it can easily be recognized one of those films which has the necessary potential to lead many African film industries on their paths to success.

When Tahir and Amine wake up one morning they find their father has already left the house. When he fails to return for their football match they begin to think something is up and their mother is no help, refusing to help find him and hoping to just move past this useless man. However when the two sons start to look for their father they find that he has not been to his job in over two years and they believe that they have seen him in a film shown at a local cinema. When they get in trouble for stealing the film, their mother sends them away to a Koran school where the boys quickly realise that things will not be as good as they have been told.

Although I do not know a great deal about Chad other than where it is, it is hard not to spot that a story that contains such things as a lack of a leadership role and the dream of getting to the sea (that represents a new world) clearly has some other meaning beyond the narrative that applies to the landlocked African country. However, beyond the most obvious of metaphors, I wasn't able to read a lot of the finer points in the film but this did not mean that I wasn't able to enjoy it, because I was. The story is still an interesting one even if some subtexts went over my head. The emotions and plights of the characters are easy to read and are engaging throughout. Ali Farka Toure's score is as haunting as much of his music and it aids the emotional impact of the film without ever making it cloying or manipulative.

Moussa's Tahir is convincing and engaging while Aguid plays the little brother role well enough to steal the audience heart but without making it into a simple "cute kid" performance that is often the result of Western child performances in films. The support cast are all pretty good and everyone, from the leads to the smallest roles, come over as natural and realistic. However the main stars of the film for me were the director and the cinematographer because they produce a beautiful film that frames shots fantastically while also bringing out colour and places really. It is the sort of film you could take screenshots of and use them as pictures in your home.

Overall this is a great film that deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. Watching this film and countless others like it from Africa you do have to wonder why Bob Geldof decided that loads of singing white people was the best way to raise awareness of Africa – Live8 is fine but why not get the global cinema chains to buy in with screenings of films like this with all proceeds going to the poverty campaign? Anyway, regardless of that this film will become known with time because it is strong enough to do the rounds. I may not know a lot but the metaphors are clear to read although, even without them the film is a haunting and beautiful piece that is well worth trying to find.

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.

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.