Dry Season

Dry Season (Daratt)
Mahamat Saleh Haroun, Chad, 2006, Color, 96’

In tropical Africa, during the dry season all agricultural works stop, rural people then deal with other chores or go on a journey. Young Atim (the Orphan) also packs up and hits the dusty roads in order to go for the first time to the faraway capital city. However there is a certain tension in the air. After a forty-year civil war, the government that promised peace has just amnestied all the war criminals. This news outrages the aggrieved families, resulting in chaos. So Atim is in fact sent to the city with a secret mission. He carries in his bag the gun of his father killed years ago. However while searching for a monster in the city, he unwillingly finds himself in a father-and-son relationship. He goes spontaneously through a moral transformation. When he turns back to his village behind the dunes, he is a mature and different person.