Ethiopian film-maker Zersenay Mehari’s feature film debut “Difret” (2014) is the kind of work that amply uses the cinematic medium to shed light on things, which may not have attained the same impact with a public lecture. Early into the film, a fourteen year old girl Hirut Assefa (Tizita Hagere), belonging to a farming community, stands nervously in the classroom as her homeroom teacher is about to tell the test results. After asking few questions he says to Hirut: “I putting in a recommendation to promote you to fifth grade”. As the classes finish, the girl walks with a smile on her face, feeling the cool air on her face, but soon a bunch of pony-riding, gun-toting men kidnap her and escape into the woods. “Difret” of course isn’t a thriller about teen abduction. It is a social drama that condemns the long-held tradition of ‘Telefa’ – the practice of abduction for marriage in Ethiopia.
The movie takes place in 1996, a year in which the decision
on Hirut’s case criminalized the ‘telefa’ tradition among the villages of
Ethiopia (based on the case of Aberash Bekale) [although the abductions for
marriage declined vitally after the 1996 case, the practice of ‘telefa’ is said
to have increased in recent times]. Hirut’s poor farmer dad wanted his girl to
be well-educated. His elder daughter was abucted & married few years before
Hirut’s abduction. The kidnapping was in fact seen as a grand romantic gesture
and was said to be encourage by village elders. Hirut was locked in a mud-house
and in the night she was raped. Next day, her would-would husband announces
there is nothing to worry and that they would get married soon and later
blessed with a child. Hirut makes her escape by stealing her ‘suitor’s’ gun and
when cornered, she shoots and kills him. As per the custom, she has to be immediately
killed (by slicing the throat), but the village police takes her in their custody.
Meaza Ashenafi (Meron Getnet), who lives in the capital city
of Addis Ababa, works for Andinet Women Lawyers Association, crusading for
women’s rights. She calmly handles the blatant sexism thrown at her from every
corner. Earlier, we see her handling a domestic abuse case in a dignified &
lega manner. When Meaza hears about Hirut, she immediately appears in the
village station, but is only met with disdainful answers by DA and local
inspector. The law officers suspect that the girl might be 17 or 18 and blocks
off medical treatment or bail, claiming that Hirut shot a man in cold blood.
They are neither disturbed by Hirut’s abduction nor ready to question the
brutal tradition. Meanwhile, village elders convene to impose a harsh
punishment on Hirut’s family (for opposing the village custom).
“Difret” is utterly predictable. It mixes the Hollywood
legal thriller setup into the docu-drama structure. Director Mehari’s
execution, however, is very good at many places and the raw performances by the
two lead female characters make us look past few of the narrative turbulence. The
real Meaza Ashenafi founded Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) in 1995
and received ‘Hunger Project Award’ in 2003 – known as African Nobel Prize –
for advocating women’s rights & empowerment in Ethiopia. Aberash Bekale
case (Hirut in the film) is what brought Meaza’s name and her organization to prominence
and so Mehari chosen it for his debut narrative. Since, Meaza was a young
lawyer (and her organization just started), the struggles and doubts she faces provides
for natural story elements.
Director Mehari
learned film-making in USC School of the Cinematic Arts (Los Angeles) and has
returned back to his country of birth (after working near a decade in
Hollywood) to make impactful film on the social issues faced by the African
country (the film premiered Sundace Film Festival and shortly before the
premiere Angelina Jolie is added as ‘executive producer’). Through “Difret”,
Mehari hasn’t portrayed Ethiopia as a nation steeped in out-dated, despicable
traditions. He doesn’t even demonize people who strongly believe in the custom
of ‘telefa’. He subtly depicts how sexism prevails among the entire top to
bottom layers of community, but at the same time the director is smart enough
to turn the narrative into a bleak feminist movie, where every male is a
misogynist. Hirut’s father and teacher stubbornly fight against the village
tradition, just like Meaza.
The scene where the village elders convene to decide on fate
of Hirut was one of the powerful sequences in the film. We hear appalling
comments from the men gathered, but these people are not demonized for their
views. Later, we see Meaza going to the house of a villager, who has vowed to
kill Hirut. The man who made caustic remarks earlier doesn’t holler at her and
a woman from his family invites Meaza for lunch. It would have very easy to
demonize these people, but the director chooses to show them as human beings
and also highlights on the villagers’ amazing hospitality tradition. The
distressful feelings that mask Hirut, while staying away from the family, were
also excellently presented without a strong dose of melodrama. Nevertheless,
Mehari’s movie does struggle from few pacing issues and narrative quirks.
The director builds up the intense emotions involved behind
Hirut’s case in the final scene, through different people tensely sitting in
front of a radio. But, the court proceedings don’t infuse enough tension on the
viewer. A witness character is introduced at the last minute and he doesn’t
seem to provide any fresh context on Hirut’s struggle. There are few other
amateur narrative tropes in the film’s third act that forces us to remember
that it is a directorial debut. As I said earlier, the two leads are more than
strong. Hagere as Hirut (her bewildered reactions to modern conveniences are a
delight to watch) and Getnet as Meaza sensitively explore their respective
characters’ inner conflicts without employing easy, over-the-top emotions.
Ethiopian social drama “Difret” (99 minutes), despite few
narrative blemishes, valiantly dares at a defective ancient custom and conveys
a hopeful message on gender equality.
Trailer
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