Filmmaker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun is publishing a jubilant new novel freely inspired by the fate of Eric Moussambani, a young Guinean swimmer who marked the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
We obviously know Mahamat-Saleh Haroun as a filmmaker. His latest film “Lingui, les ties sacrés” was shown at the last Cannes film festival.
But he is also – he who was also Chad’s Minister of Culture – a writer. Three years after “Djibril or the cast shadows”, he is now publishing “Les culs reptiles”, a fiction freely inspired by a true story, that of Eric Moussambani, an extraordinary fate that the whole world discovered at the Games Sydney Olympics in the year 2000.
From this extraordinary destiny Mahamat-Salmeh Haroun wrote a novel full of suspense and twists, populated by colorful characters, funny scenes and others that are much less.
An addictive, jubilant and lively story, which in passing questions the mistakes of authoritarian regimes, the symbolic force of sport and the values of life.
“The culs-reptiles” of Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, released today by Gallimard editions in the Continents Noirs collection.
Rebroadcast at 11:10 pm UT on RFI’s Africa antenna of the VMDN program of Tuesday, August 31 with Bastien Vivès and Martin Quenehen