France and Chad / 2013 / 101mins / Drama, Romance / French and Arabic

Despite a bum leg, 25-year-old Grigris dreams of being a professional dancer, while he is making some extra cash on the dance floor of his local club every weekend. When his stepfather falls critically ill and he's forced to smuggle oil to pay the hospital bills. When he befriends Mimi, a beautiful woman who is a prostitute, the two will try to start a new life together. But bad decisions begin to catch up with them and their pasts are never far behind, bringing them to a perilous climax.

Mahamat Saleh Haroun

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun was born in Chad in 1963. He studied film at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma in Paris, and went on to study journalism at Bordeaux I.U.T. (Technical Institute). He worked for several years in the press and radio before directing his first film, Maral tanié. He was able to make the film thanks to support from Burkinabé filmmakers of his generation. Bye Bye, Africa received a jury mention at the Venice Film Festival, 1999. Haroun's second feature, Abouna, won best cinematography award at FESPACO, while his third, Daratt, won the Grand Special Jury Prize at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival. The 2010 feature film A Screaming Man won the Jury Prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, making Haroun the first Chadian director to enter, as well as win, an award in the main Cannes competition. In April 2011, it was announced that he would be a member of the jury for the main competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. His 2013 film Grigris was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. He served as one of the jury members for the Cinéfondation and short film sections of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. His 2016 documentary, Hissein Habré, a Chadian Tragedy, about the former Chadian dictator, also premiered at Cannes as well as the New York Film Festival in 2016. Learn More