(Dec 11, 2014, (Los Angeles Times))--The compelling "Difret" is a small film with a lot on its mind.
Authentic and affecting, this drama about fighting against the Ethiopian
tradition of abducting young girls into marriage is potent enough to be
that country's official Academy Award submission and gain the support
of Angelina Jolie as an executive producer.
Director Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, who also wrote the film's Amharic-language script, is a graduate of USC's film school, and the strength of "Difret" is in that particular combination of classic storytelling and cultural specificity.
Based on an actual incendiary legal case that was a sensation in Ethiopia a decade ago, "Difret" not only deals with an abhorrent practice that is still going on, it provides a dramatic yet nuanced window into a culture we almost never see.
For as Mehari said in an interview at the Sundance Film Festival, where the film won the World Cinema Audience Award for drama, "Difret" (the word means "to dare" but can also refer to rape) is a work without specific evil-doers. "If there is a villain in my film," he said, "it's not a person, it's the tradition." Read more from Los Angeles Times »
Director Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, who also wrote the film's Amharic-language script, is a graduate of USC's film school, and the strength of "Difret" is in that particular combination of classic storytelling and cultural specificity.
Based on an actual incendiary legal case that was a sensation in Ethiopia a decade ago, "Difret" not only deals with an abhorrent practice that is still going on, it provides a dramatic yet nuanced window into a culture we almost never see.
For as Mehari said in an interview at the Sundance Film Festival, where the film won the World Cinema Audience Award for drama, "Difret" (the word means "to dare" but can also refer to rape) is a work without specific evil-doers. "If there is a villain in my film," he said, "it's not a person, it's the tradition." Read more from Los Angeles Times »
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