Mahamat-Saleh Haroun was born in Chad. His work was brought to the fore at the 1999 Venice Film Festival, where his first feature film "Bye-Bye Africa" was awarded the prize for the Best Debut Film. His second film, "Our Father", was selected at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2002. Four years later, he was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival for "Dry Season", while the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) in New York devoted a retrospective exhibition to his work. In 2010, his fourth feature film, "A Screaming Man", received the Jury Prize in Cannes. That same year, he also received the prestigious Robert Bresson Award at the Venice Film Festival, as well as the Humanity Prize at the 34th Mostra in São Paolo, Brazil.