7/10
There are all too few African films shown in the UK, so it is a pleasure to welcome this new film from Chad, which is as good as, or better than most other films available from round the world.
A middle aged man called Adam, a former swimming champion, looks after the swimming pool which caters for rich tourists in a town in Chad. His son works alongside him. The father is proud of his status as well as his income, and is therefore profoundly shocked when the new Chinese owners announce that they are dispensing with his services and are giving his son full responsibility. He is crushed, mortified and humiliated.
But then temptation comes his way. There is a civil war and the government are demanding young men as soldiers to fight for their country. What could be more patriotic than offering his son in such a worthy cause? That is the moral dilemma that he faces, and it is the core of a film that manages to convey the sense of what it is like in a part of the world most of us will never come near to, as well as a universal quandary about how to balance one's own needs against what is right.
It is a powerful and moving film, which will touch and engage everyone who sees it.
