directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (2010)
Set in Chad, this flick follows a rather Shakespearean path. There's a father and a son, both working at the same hotel. The father was a champion swimmer who parleyed that skill into a job running the hotel pool. It's a good job and it's his whole world. His son is following in his footsteps, working alongside him, until the hotel changes owners and that upsets the pool man's kingdom.
There was a lot going on in this film I wasn't quite getting, like the fact that the father was paying a war tax of some sort to the government? The army? I dunno, I guess Chad is at war with itself, a civil war of some sort, but that wasn't made clear. There's some news footage in the beginning showing dead soldiers and talking about the "rebels", but I didn't understand who the rebels were or what that meant.
SPOILERS!!!
I didn't much like this one, even though the lead did a very good job. It was too sad. I hate when parents are selfish and disappointing. Seeing a man jealous of his son succeeding him is a bit understandable, but then the way he betrayed him was just yuck. I'm not sure if he could have stopped his son getting drafted, but it seemed like he could have. At least he could have told his son, if we don't scrape together the cash, you're going soldiering. I bet the son would have paid attention. Sure it's a story, but I hate how it was written as an illustration of human weakness. Maybe it resonates better with folk in Chad. Probably it's got an anti-war message for them. I guess it's fucking reprehensible that fathers are the ones who believe the sons should be sacrificed going to war.
It's distributed by The Film Movement DVD club. They send you a different arty flick every month, $11/month if you subscribe for a year. Inneresting way to get the flicks out.
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