Fiche Film
Cinéma/TV
LONG Métrage |
Fig Tree (Etz Te’ena) – Projet en développement
Pays concerné : Éthiopie
Durée : 90 minutes
Genre : drame
Type : fiction

Français

Un film de Alamork Marsha

Ethiopie / Israel · Fiction, long métrage, Couleur · 1h30′


Réalisatrice : Alamork Marsha

Production
Black Sheep Film Productions Ltd.
18 levontin street
65112 Tel aviv
[email protected]


2014 | Festival de Locarno, Suisse
* Selection – Open Doors
www.pardolive.ch/fr/Open-Doors/film?fid=724179&finit=&dinit=&cinit=&sid=&day=&vid=&eid=67

English

It is high noon on January 25th 1991, during the latter part of the Ethiopian Civil War, four months before the capture of Addis Ababa by the rebel coalition. Mina, a girl of 14, is standing on the banks of the River Awash and fighting as hard as she can to untie a rope from the neck of a soldier without legs, hanging from an ancient fig tree.

Mina lives in a secluded area on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. Not far from her house, down the valley, flows a stream whose matted vegetation banks are occasionally visited by people who wish to end their lives. Despite the despair felt at the raging war, and the frequent kidnapping of boys her age on « collection days », Mina becomes accustomed to zigzagging between the demands of reality during war time and her desire to live and breathe her days of youth.

Rata (19), Mina’s older brother, who has returned from the battlefield without his right arm, continues to demonstrate forced loyalty as a soldier in the municipal civic service but is secretly weaving a plan to implement a right reserved only for Jews; the right to leave, move away from the war, and emigrate to the land of Israel.

Mina, who cannot think of leaving her Christian boyfriend Eli, begins to weave opposing plans: she will make love to Eli in order to bind him to her womb and force her family to accept him as her husband in order to preserve her honor, thus enabling him to come with them to Israel.

Despite her plans, a group of soldiers, wrapped in the gloom of the night, break in and drag Eli into a speeding pickup truck. Mina suspects her brother is involved and is determined to save Eli. She takes Rata’s rifle from the house and shoots one of the soldiers realizing too late that her actions might bring a death sentence on both Eli and her family. The following moments are crucial. The soldiers who have already left are bound to notice something is wrong. Rata forces Mina to escape with him and find shelter at the Israeli Embassy hoping that they will be safe there. But Mina, who won’t leave Eli behind, sneaks out, and runs deep into the dark of night and fades into the gloom of war.

A film by Alamork Marsha

Ethiopia / Israel · Color · 90′



Director’s note

Even though there were rumors about the war coming to an end, my last days in Ethiopia, which I wasn’t even aware of being the last days, were conducted in quite an ordinary manner.
I wish to go back there and tell the story of the « Shola » (Fig) neighborhood. The war, which is constantly present in the background, will ultimately generate the dramatic turning point of the story, but the heart and the focus of the film will be the description of Mina’s daily life. Through her, I wish to describe the surreal situation in which people miraculously manage to build a normal life during wartime.

Directing
Alamork Marsha

Production
Black Sheep Film Productions Ltd.
18 levontin street
65112 Tel aviv
[email protected]

Genre
Narrative

Based on
Original screenplay

Shooting format
Digital

Shooting location
Ethiopia

Shooting start date
10/2015

Expected completion date
04/2016

Production status
Writing / Development

Budget
1,385,934 Euro

Financing in place
15,934 Euro


2014 | Locarno film fest,
* Selection – Open Doors
www.pardolive.ch/en/Open-Doors/film?fid=724179&finit=&dinit=&cinit=&sid=&day=&vid=&eid=67
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