Film Festival 09 - Teza
Teza
Ethiopia/Germany 2008, 140m
Director: Haile Gerima
Festivals: Venice, Toronto, London 2008; Rotterdam 2009
Haile Gerima (Harvest 3000 Years) is the cine-laureate of Ethiopia.
His new film is an impassioned account of a country at war - and at
war with itself - for 40 years. History is related through the epic
journey of one man's life and defining relationships from 50s
village boyhood in the shadow of Mussolini and a martyred war-hero
father; through his 60s medical education in communist East
Germany; then his return to Addis Ababa during Mengistu's reign of
terror; and ultimately into the 90s. Though as turbulent, violent
and loaded with debate as the events it describes the film remains
consistently clear and gripping. History here is an infernal
machine of the impossible choices that confront and subsequently
haunt the conscientious protagonist. As dramatically alert to
gender conflict as it is to the struggles of race and class, Teza
provides potent proof that the most compelling observer is not the
victor, but the survivor. - BG
In Amharic, German and English, with English subtitles
