Dry Season

The war that started in 1965 in Chad changed the country into a wilderness of pain, hatred and vengeance. The call for justice can be heard everywhere, but what is justice in a country where almost all the civilians are themselves victims? The marginal life of the impotent survivors seems to merge without contrast in the pale landscapes of the ravaged country.
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun situated Dry Season against the background of this great drama and in doing so creates a small yet powerful story about hatred and forgiveness. When the government offers amnesty in 2006 to all war criminals, 15-year-old Atim, whose father was murdered before he was born, is given a rifle by his grandpa. It is now his task to find his father’s murderer and to kill him. Atim finds the man, who has now become a kind-hearted and hard-working baker. When the boy pretends to be looking for work, the baker takes him under his wing.
An unspoken mutual reconnaissance, during which the two try to probe each other’s underlying motives, is hidden behind an apparently simple master-apprentice relationship. Slowly but surely, an unexpected and contradictory relationship develops that leads to an equally unusual catharsis. Dry Season, produced by Abderrahmane Sissako, won several awards at the Venice Film Festival, including the Grand Special Jury Prize. (SdH)