Zeresenay berhane mehari biography of donald
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Screened at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival,the issue-driven drama Difret gave audiences the right mix of social commentary and art-house aesthetics to awe viewers and take the Panorama Audience Award.
It’s a formula that is no stranger to blockbuster features: courageous characters tangled in tragic circumstances – with all odds tremendously stacked against them – find the tenacity to challenge the status quo and come out on top. With Difret, we get something similar: a story of conflict that is fierce enough for fiction, but is a true story. Adding to the intrigue, the film gives us a glimpse into the complexities of Ethiopia, a country rarely captured on the big screen, as it transitions towards equal rights.
Directed by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, Difret follows 14-year-old Hirut, a bright village girl far beyond her years. It’s the mid-1990s. Three hours outside of the capital of Addis Ababa, Hirut is abducted on her way home from school by a group of men on horseback. A victim of telefa, or marriage by abduction, Hirut is raped by her would-be husband and locked in a barn. While attempting escape, she grabs a rifle and shoots her captor dead.
In rural villages, the practice of abduction into marriage is common and one of Ethiopia’s oldest traditions
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‘Difret’ May Raise Profile of Ethiopia’s Filmmakers During Oscar Race
Only one film from sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) has ever won an Academy Award for foreign-language film. That is “Black and White in Color” back in 1976, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, a French production flying under the flag of the Ivory Coast. Before this year, this vast region of 900 million people had only ever submitted nine films, and Annaud remains the only nominee.
So could 2014 see a breakthrough for authentically African cinema at the Oscars? For the first time, there are two entries, and both are real contenders: “Timbuktu” by Abderrahmane Sissako from Mauritania, which premiered to glowing reviews at Cannes, and “Difret” by Ethiopia’s Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, which won audience awards at Sundance and Berlin.
Sissako, 53, is the more established name, one of a handful of African filmmakers to achieve international recognition. But Mehari, a 38-year-old USC grad making his feature debut, brings the kind of Hollywood experience and trans-Atlantic smarts that could just catch the eye of Oscar voters.
“Difret,” which boasts the endorsement of Angelina Jolie as exec producer, tells the true story of
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Difret producer post director watch over the 2015 Athena Membrane Festival
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