Written and directed by Chadan autuer Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars begins with an enigmatic tale.
There are said to be two kinds of downpour in the country, one is the "rain of abundance," the other the "rain of crawling clouds." Due to the predominantly desert climate across the country, such a deluge is regarded as an unsettling sign.
Kellou (Maïmouna Miawana) is a village girl who finds herself foreseeing things from both the past and the future. This troubles her as she learns to live with her farmhand father Gabra (Ériq Ebouaney) and stepmother. Gabra's wife died giving birth to Kellou, and the girl has since gained a reputation as the so-called "blood girl."
Yet with her boyfriend Baba (Christ Assidjim Mbaihornom), she is able to find moments of consolation. As the couple spend time together, they traverse vast canyons and mesmerising caverns that evoke the spirit of ancient civilisation.
A sense of menace looms over the impoverished area when an unwelcome maid, Aya (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane), arrives in the village. The residents blame recent tragedies, such as the deaths of babies and raging floods (although the film does not show these events directly), on her, believing Aya to be a cursed witch.
When Kellou first meets Aya, she sees a sick, coughing woman who is despised and socially tainted. As she befriends her, Kellou discovers that Aya was the one who helped deliver her at birth. Aya thereafter reveals that she is a bastard child of her mother. She tells Kellou a romanticised parable of "soumsoum," a carnival in which masked men and women mingle freely under the moonlight without taboos.
Behind this poetic image lies a more troubling reality: a culture of promiscuous behaviour that ultimately led to Aya's birth. This candid conversation creates an unexpected bond between the two women, as both struggle for their identity in different ways.
As their friendship deepens, the villagers grow increasingly hostile toward those associated with Aya. Baba reluctantly ends his relationship with Kellou, while Gabra, who is revealed to have fled to the village as an outsider after committing involuntary manslaughter, faces the risk of expulsion.
Amid this crisis, Kellou learns that Aya has died at home. Despite her family's attempts to stop her, Kellou insists on washing and burying Aya's body properly, believing that otherwise her soul will not rest in peace. In the final moments, she places Aya beside the protective deity and completes a ceremony for the tainted dead, which also symbolically fulfils her wish to lay her own dead mother to rest.
Through the magic of African fables and supernatural elements, Haroun and co-writer Laurent Gaudé craft a haunting story about female agency. The film presents a vision of how the living may honour the dead while challenging the patriarchal structures that stigmatise women in Chad.
Although Kellou's supernatural abilities may recall What Marielle Knows from last year's competition, the film does not attempt to explain how these powers function. Instead, they are treated as a metaphor for female difference and social marginalisation.
Cinematographer Mathieu Giombini captures the vast and picturesque landscapes of Chad, which momentarily make viewers forget that its people continue to suffer from severe poverty and lack of resources. More often, the camera renders the scenery as the primary subject, with the characters appearing as small figures within it.
This approach becomes especially resonating when Kellou approaches the Lady Sentinels, touching the cliff-like walls with her hands and hearing the humming of the buried souls surrounding her; mystified, solemn sounds seem to echo from prehistoric petroglyphs.
What follows is the ending shot that points toward an azure sky, where there is no longer a night of stars. The heavens are clear, and the tainted are finally purified.
Fundamentally, Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars examines how communities exclude those deemed impure and the limbo space within them. It reflects on how people should learn to honour those with troubled pasts. In such an immense desert, there should be space for everyone, for the moral and the immoral, for the living and the dead.
The film enjoyed its world premiere at the 2026 Berlinale.