Metrograph

Born and raised in Ethiopia before relocating to the United States for his studies, where, at UCLA, he would become associated with the LA Rebellion school of Black filmmakers, Gerima returned to his homeland, then riven by the civil war that had seen the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie, to produce this shoestring, Godardian epic on black-and-white 16mm, cast entirely with Amharic-speaking nonprofessionals, about the simmering tensions between a peasant family and the feudal Lord who battens on their labor, as has been done since time immemorial. Winner of the Grand Prize at Locarno, and the film that “not only put Ethiopia on the film-making map but, with lines like ‘Is there anywhere in the world where there are no flies or Europeans?’, turned African cinema white hot.” [Sight & Sound]

Distributor: Sankofa