Director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun is known for hard-hitting, evocative dramas set in his native Chad, a country that was embroiled in sectarian conflict for decades. Movies like Dry Season, A Screaming Man (which won Cannes’ Jury Prize in 2011) and Grigris followed men in various states of turmoil, beset by violence and other hardships in the Sub-Saharan desert. Along with his unflinching documentary on the humanitarian crimes committed by Chadian dictator Hissen Habre, Haroun’s films form an uncompromising body of work that’s definitely bleak, but can also be rather luminous. His previous feature, Lingui, The Sacred Bonds, marked a change of direction for the auteur, who focused on female characters for the first time and offered a more hopeful vibe than before. He continues this streak with Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars (Soumsoum, la nuit des astres), a modern-day fable of adolescence and resilience that plays, at times, like a classic teen horror flick — minus the jump scares but with similar twists and motifs. Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars The Bottom Line Languid, …