Lingui, The Sacred Bonds

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Lingui, The Sacred Bonds

2022

1h 27m

Drama

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Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

96%

Tomatometer

56 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

On the outskirts of N'Djamena in Chad, Amina lives alone with her only 15-year-old daughter Maria. Her already fragile world collapses the day she discovers that her daughter is pregnant. The teenager does not want this pregnancy. In a country where abortion is not only condemned by religion, but also by law, Amina finds herself facing a battle that seems lost in advance...

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Critics Consensus

Lingui, the Sacred Bonds uses one family's fraught story to offer a forceful rejoinder to the oppressive norms of patriarchal culture.

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Peter Rainer

FilmWeek (LAist)

Mar 11, 2022

Easily the best film I've seen from Chad... This is a very good movie.

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Joe Morgenstern

Wall Street Journal

Feb 19, 2022

Another part is the state of their own connection -- frayed by harsh circumstance and in urgent need of repair. That repair work constitutes the heart of this beautiful film.

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Randy Myers

San Jose Mercury News

Feb 17, 2022

3.5/4

It’s an infuriating movie that will summon your own outrage.

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Farah Cheded

A Good Movie To Watch

Sep 29, 2023

This is a film in which acts of kindness are quietly delivered on the understanding that that’s what we owe each other, and one where sisterhood is alive — making this, paradoxically, a simultaneously enraging and heartening watch.

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Alessandra Rangel

InSession Film

Mar 8, 2023

4/5

In Lingui, the Sacred Bonds, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun presents a film of resilience and determination. He carefully exposes the many ways in which women are abused...

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Elsa Fernández-Santos

El Pais (Spain)

Jul 8, 2022

A love story between mother and daughter, and between multi-generational women, who unite in solidarity in the face of systematic abuse. [Full review in Spanish]

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Kofi T

@RT05954185 May 19, 2025

Excellent film. I never even knew that Chad had a film industry. And I certainly didn't see that ending coming.

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Aug 14, 2022

I was pleasantly surprised by the acting and the kind of story the director wants to tell.

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florent m

@FlorentMagnoac Mar 26, 2022

An interesting insight of an African community that sadly lacks the powerful emotional strikes it should have hold. There is a big lack of empathy for both the lead characters that prevent you from being totally involved or deeply moved by what is going on. And mostly it has been done more strikingly in other entries but still worth a watch if you're into world cinema and want to keep your conscience awake of what is going on in our world.

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Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

Director

Achouackh Abakar

Amina

Rihane Khalil Alio

Maria

Youssouf Djaoro

Brahim

Briya Gomdigue

Fanta

Hadjé Fatimé N'Goua

La sage-femme

Lingui: The Sacred Bonds: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

On the outskirts of N'Djamena in Chad, Amina lives alone with her only 15-year-old daughter Maria. Her already fragile world collapses the day she discovers that her daughter is pregnant. The teenager does not want this pregnancy. In a country where abortion is not only condemned by religion, but also by law, Amina finds herself facing a battle that seems lost in advance...

Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Producer: Florence Stern, Melanie Andernach, Diana Elbaum
Screenwriter: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Distributor: MUBI
Production Co: Goï Goï Productions, Canal+ International, Made In Germany Filmproduktion, Pili Films, Proximus, Beluga Tree
Genre: Drama
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 4, 2022, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 8, 2022
Box Office (Gross USA): $27.5K
Runtime: 1h 27m
Aspect Ratio: Digital 2.39:1

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