ETHIOPIA: ADDIS ABABA FILM PREMIERE OF NEW MOVIE "THE FATHER " ABOUT ETHIOPIA'S TURBULENT REVOLUTION IN THE 1970'S

Record ID: 391530

  • Title: ETHIOPIA: ADDIS ABABA FILM PREMIERE OF NEW MOVIE "THE FATHER " ABOUT ETHIOPIA'S TURBULENT REVOLUTION IN THE 1970'S
  • Date: 1st May 2001
  • Summary: (RECENT) ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (REUTERS -ACCESS ALL) SMV, (SOUNDBITE) (English) LETEBELE MASEMOLA-JONES, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, NEW DIRECTIONS "It's a story you could plant in South America and people would relate to it. You could plant it in China, you could plant it in Europe, parts of Europe and people will relate to that story."
  • Embargoed: 16th May 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA
  • Country: Ethiopia
  • Reuters ID: LVADGN67E1K0ITP5FWBSA713FI2X
  • Story Text: Ethiopia's film industry is virtually unknown and producing movies is difficult. But this didn't deter a team of young and somewhat inexperienced filmmakers to create their first film. It's called "The Father" and is set during Ethiopia's turbulent 1970's.
    Alazar is a promising, but struggling artist. His young girlfriend Rahel is one of his models and among his favourite subjects to paint.
    Romantic and playful, these opening scenes of The Father - a new movie set during Ethiopia's turbulent 1970's - conceal the political upheavals of the time.
    Alazar wants no part in the violence being carried out by a band of male dissidents who're fighting against the dictatorial military regime.
    Until, that is, his best friend Yonas with soldiers hot on his heels, turns up at his house and asks him to hide a pistol.
    The weapon is discovered at the bottom of a tin of paint, incriminating Alazar and sucking him into a conflict he'd gone to great pains to avoid being part of.
    Scriptwriter, Manyazewal Endashew says the story had been on his mind for some time.
    "This is a very important moment of our life, of our generation - so we must be able to show what happened.
    Another aspect is there are young people who do not know about this period so they must know what happened before their time. The basic idea is such things should never happen again. So it was terrible - we have gone through it - so we don't have to do it again.
    Through scenes of torture and beatings The Father details the brutality of the military during the years of the Derg. An army commander, holding a pistol to Alazar's head offers him a difficult way out. Shoot yourself or shoot your best friend. To save his own life, Alazar pulls the trigger on his best friend.
    It's a dreadful secret that haunts him for the next seven years - a secret, which affects his work. Once hopeful and optimistic, his paintings become dark, ugly and angry.
    The secrets are revealed when Yonas' sister Tigist returns from exile. Trying to search out the truth about her brother's death she's horrified to learn that it was his best friend who fired the fatal shot.
    Making The Father, in a country which has no film industry to speak of, was a personal victory for the young and somewhat inexperienced crew.
    Director Ermias Wolde Amlak says "In Ethiopia it was almost zero to get a film produced. In Ethiopia - being a film-maker doesn't make you to produce a film. But getting this chance for me was like getting a big lottery."
    The cast was made up of mostly amateur actors, who had a little background in stage acting.
    Ermias says "Ethiopians want to see their own face, their own experience, their own history - in story - in screen and this is one of the opportunities for them to see their own experience."
    Long queues formed at the National Theatre in Addis Ababa recently for the film's first screening. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to watch this new movie about a very dark period in the country's history. And mingle with the people who'd been behind its making.
    Producer Maji-Da Abdi says "I am very happy. It is sort of like the birth of something. We have been working for a long time on it. And everybody put their heart into it and finally this is the outcome."
    The Father was produced as part of Magic Works New Directions - a film development project started by South African pay TV channel, M-Net.
    New Directions executive producer Letebele Masemola-Jones says "It's a story you could plant in South America and people would relate to it. You could plant it in China, you could plant it in Europe, parts of Europe and people will relate to that story."
    Since its inception 7 years ago New Directions has produced 25 short and 2 full length feature films across Anglophone Africa.
    Letebele Masemola-Jones says "There is a great future for African film, on this continent and outside of this continent. There is a lot of doom and gloom that we see in many of the news reports around the world of this continent and no one has really bothered to dig out some of the more interesting human stories. Or to - you know - no one has actually even attempted to see what stories people want to tell. And that's a side of Africa that people don't know."
    Just as the film opens with a painting, it returns to the canvas for its closure. But gone is the romance and naivety of the opening scenes.
    Alazar, now working for the national theatre has been ordered to paint a portrait of the dictator - the man who's the cause of all his misery. This time around Alazar decides to make a political stand against the brutal regime. And for that, he must flee.
    ---ENDS---
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