ITALY: Teza chronicles the life of a young Ethiopian intellectual who fled his country

Record ID: 708585

  • Title: ITALY: Teza chronicles the life of a young Ethiopian intellectual who fled his country
  • Date: 4th September 2008
  • Summary: VENICE LIDO, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 3, 2008) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) 'TEZA' DIRECTOR HAILE GERIMA SAYING: "It's more really about a generation of people a collective story at a given time where we grew up in Ethiopia and then went abroad to fine the fire of modernisations, and then in most cases it has started a nightmare, in certain circumstances and that for me illust
  • Embargoed: 19th September 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVA4IAOB06OP7A9HPCYNRKVCA3XH
  • Story Text: A powerful new film chronicles the life of an Ethiopian intellectual who flees his country during the Marxist "red terror" in the 1980s, only to be viciously attacked in Germany by racist youths.
    A powerful new film chronicles the life of an Ethiopian intellectual who flees his country during the Marxist "red terror" in the 1980s, only to be viciously attacked in Germany by racist youths.
    'Teza', which opened at the Venice film festival on Tuesday (September 2), tells the story of Anberber, who returns to his homeland longing for peace. His life with his mother in a small village is disrupted by armed factions dragging boys away to fight and by prying locals wary of a man they consider to be an outsider.
    'Teza', by Ethiopian director Haile Gerima, is one of 21 movies in competition at the Venice film festival, and warm applause after a press screening suggested it would be a contender for prizes at the closing ceremony on Saturday.
    The story jumps between multiple timelines, but in each Anberber struggles to fit in, be it in his native Ethiopia or in exile in Germany.
    Gerima said 'Teza' reflected his own experiences, and was based on a recurring dream.

    "It's more really about a generation of people a collective story at a given time where we grew up in Ethiopia and then went abroad to fine the fire of modernisations, and then in most cases it has started a nightmare, in certain circumstances and that for me illustrated my own obsession,"
    Gerima said on Wednesday (September 3).

    "I think its an obsession, a story that I have been obsessed by for a long time, almost 14 years I have been trying to find the money and at no time I had outgrown it. Still every day I was informing my reality whether I am at an airport in London or in Washington in an immigration office or I am in my own country or in south Africa I am always reminded by having been displaced,", Gerima added.
    Anberber seeks refuge in memories of his happy childhood, something U.S.-based Gerima said he also did whenever he returned to Ethiopia which he described as "a nightmare for me."

    "This is one story about a character like that, that returns but is caught up in a very turbulent political situation and climate and he suffers for it and the principles that he has acquired along the way", says Aaron Arefe who plays Anberber.
    Some of the most striking scenes are set in the 1980s, with Ethiopia in the grip of purges, show trials, executions and mob lynchings under the leadership of Mengistu Haile Mariam, who seized power in 1974 after Emperor Haile Selassie's overthrow.
    Giant portraits of Marx, Engels and Lenin form the backdrop to the violence and fear, and Anberber's revolutionary fervour quickly turns to disillusionment as he realises what the regime means for himself and his country.

    "The majority of cinema is about white people. And if you say, even in America native Americans do not have the liberty to tell their stories. African Americans can only be comedic, in Africa we can only be jungle people as background for out of Africa. And so for me it's like I am a cave man, and I have a right to go in the cave and scratch your footprint, saying I have a story, I matter, I had existed, and so 'Teza' is a shout from a small corner of a poor country," Gerima said on Wednesday.
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