Africa joins the party at Cannes

The world's poorest continent joined the glitz of Cannes on Sunday when a rare African contender entered the race for the film festival's top award, the Palme d'Or.

Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's "A Screaming Man" is the first film made south of the Sahara to be selected in 13 years to compete for the prize.

Shot with the desert country's on-off civil war raging in the background, the drama shows a swimming champion turned hotel pool attendant humiliated when the new cost-cutting Chinese owners force him to hand his job to his son.

It will compete with 18 other movies from across the world for the prize for best film announced at the close of the 12-day event on May 23. The last sub-Saharan movie in competition dates back to 1997.

A slow-paced movie reflecting the rhythm of life in Africa, the magnificently-shot film focuses on the tension between the middle-aged man and his son, also about to become a father, while evoking issues of corruption, conflict and poverty.

"My films aim to bring Africa back within the fold of humanity where it is often elbowed out. Africa has a place and a voice," said the 49-year-old director.

"But you have to be a dreamer to continue to make films in countries where cinemas are closing down and where there is no local finance for film," he told AFP.

Haroun, who has won festival awards with "Daratt" and "Bye Bye Africa", mirrors incidents from his own life in late 70s war-torn Chad when the movie father charges to the rescue of his son, press-ganged onto the battlefield.

As a young man Haroun was shot by a stray bullet and carried off to safety in a wheelbarrow by his father.

"The moral I guess is about people learning not to be mere spectators of their destinies but to act to change the course of hisotry," he said at a Cannes press conference.

Also bringing a flavour of Africa to this year's event is a movie about a hot group of Congolese street musicians in wheelchairs that is causing a buzz.

And yet to come is a South African film in a section showcasing new talent, "Un Certain Regard".

Highlighting the instability of Africa's ravaged Great Lakes region is a documentary about a paraplegic band from Kinshasha - Staff Benda Bilili.

They shot from obscurity to fame thanks to film-makers Renaud Barret and Florent de La Tullaye, whose documentary screens at Directors' Fortnight, a prestigious festival running parallel to the main event.

"They are remarkable," BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz wrote of the musicians after seeing "Benda Bilili" the movie. "Their music, their spirit, their humour, their existence."

The documentary chronicles the making of the group of middle-aged street musicians who got about in wheelchairs and practised in the zoo, along with a street-child playing a handmade one-string guitar.

Last year they toured Europe to rave reviews.

"One day we will be the most famous disabled men in all of Africa," says one of the players in the film.

The two film-makers, whose movie won roaring applause at Cannes, happened on the musicians by chance, introduced the street-child to the group, and then helped them find support to record a first album.

It was shot over several years and cut from 600 hours of film.

Coming to Cannes from Africa on Tuesday is "Life, After All" by South African Oliver Schmitz, set in a dust-ridden village outside Johannesburg.

Schmitz has directed 11 films since 1988, including Mapantsula which also screened in the "Un Certain Regard" section in 1988 and "Hijack Stories" in 2000.