30 Second Bottom Line: Leaving your homeland has a profound effect on both your new family and your "old" one, even when one's dreams in the promised land are realized.

Story Line: Haroun is an African who migrated to Europe and is now married to a white woman. He is separated from his African wife and his two children. Haroun works in the film industry in Europe, as he did at one time in Chad. In the middle of the night he gets a telephone call from Africa advising him that his mother has died in his homeland of Chad.

Bye Bye Africa is a story about more than just one's feelings of having left their homeland. The central plot is about Haroun's return to Africa, with a subplot examining the importance of film to cultures around the world. In Chad, war had become a culture and it resulted in movie houses being destroyed and replaced by video clubs. A video club is like going to the local Moose or VFW lodge and sitting on the floor to look at a film rented from Hollywood Video, with 100 of your closest friends, who also paid admission.

Although he arrives in Africa too late for his mother's funeral, Haroun does take the opportunity to visit old friends. Garba sees his way out of his poor life (not quite poverty) by winning the lottery. Ali, his nephew, wants to be a filmmaker. Isabelle is a former lover, and actress in a film Haroun made a few years back when he lived in Chad. Clearly she wants to change her life; notice her western hairstyle and dress.

Isabelle played the role of a woman with aids in Haroun's film Goi Goi. Because people believed she really had the disease, it changed her life in the community. She wants to pick up where they left off, but Haroun is not so sure.

Garba and Haroun tour the town and are sad when they observe the closed down movie houses. They begin to have hope when they become involved with a man who is making a film in town. The freedom of thought and expression, as conveyed by film, states in effect that "cinema is stronger than reality."

Tell Me More About It: Countries with the best technology determine the dominant culture. Making films on a consistent basis means not losing money and that often requires distribution of the film beyond the borders of the country of origin. To attract other cultures to pay to see your films, you may have to play down certain aspects of your society, or show things about it that may have other than a positive reflection at home…Chinese films come to mind. In this African country, female nudity could make you an outcast rather than a star. In this case, a potential actress has to decide if she is willing to do a nude scene in a film. We are talking R, not NC-17 or X type nudity.

When one looks at the closed movie theaters in a country with pervasive poverty, other than religious beliefs, political constructs and the structures housing these icons, you wonder what culture there is. From that perspective, the film has a depressing effect. As Ali wants to make films, it appears that his youthful aspirations will be thwarted because of a lack of mentors, resources and in general, opportunity.

Haroun is used to going from place to place any hour of the day without concern of a curfew. Back home in Africa, he must have an ID card to avoid being subject to arrest if stopped by the police. Although the shooting part of the war may be over, the mindset of the military being in control is very much in evidence.

When Haroun tries to get funding from a producer in Africa, he is turned down because the movie is too expensive to make relative to the limited outlets for potential income. The Hollywood studio system of dollars and cents is intuitive even in small, poor African countries.

At the end of the film, powerful statements are made by Isabelle, Ali and, most effectively, Garba. In each case, movies changed their lives in a way that will benefit the greater society.

Mahamet Saleh Haroun: Himself	Garba: Himself
Ali: Himself	Isabelle: Herself
Director: Mahamet Saleh Harouh