Janderebaw to hit cinemas
By Tibebeselassie Tigabu



A new film under the title ‘Janderebaw’ will be premiered on December 10 at Alem Cinema.  The film tells a story of a cold hearted woman who believes in taking revenge on men as a pay back for the wrongs a man did in her life.

‘Senait’ played by Abyssinia Gebregiorgis, perceives men as a cruel beasts, and she does what ever it takes to make  any man who wants love from her suffer.

With that presumption, she incidentally falls in love with ‘Fitsum,’ played by Mohammed Mifta, who later causes change in her perception.  Even if she was very persistent in winning the heart of the man she loved, Fitsum’s brother teaches her the hard way that it is not that simple. Finally, she is able to realise how her hasty generalization about men is wrong.

As Mihreteab tells, having young production and acting crews, their common understanding made their work easier and smoothened the whole process.

“Usually in film making, hustles happen specially when it comes to actors but our case was different that we worked as a family by supported one another,” comments Mihreteab.

After one year and six months of shooting the film, it will be screened at Alem Cinema starting from this Saturday, December 11.

Starring: Abyssinia Gebre Giorgis, Mohammed Mifta, Hiwot Getahun, Solomon Worku, Engdasew Habte, Menweyelet Temesgen, Tigist Milkesa, Eden Hailu, Nebiyat Kindeye

Director: Mihreteab Habte

Script writer: Mihreteab Habte

Producer: Mihreteab Habte

Genre: Romance Comedy

Running time:  1hr 47 min.

Budget: 500,000 birr

EMANDA: A Monotonous encircle of cinematic melodramaBy
Tibebeselassie Tigabu

Emanda, which is screened at Mati Cinema tells the story of a woman, Emanda, who tries to achieve her dream through the ups and downs where she crosses a path with an obsessed lover, Natty, and a mysterious man, blast from the past, Ananya.
Natty stalks Emanda. She is forced to change her phone number now and then but he is persistent in dumping leaving his carrier and follows her whereever she goes.
Her visit to Langano gives her an opportunity to meet a guy, Ananaiya, who provides her with an opportunity to be a model.

She starts her modeling career and it kicks off after winning a contest in Dubai and begins new path, her long awaited dream, her singing.

On the other side, Natty, who only did the stalking through the phone decides to show up in her life in a disguise where he becomes a bodyguard for her after an attempted murder of her brother.

She starts to like Natty as a friend when he was promoted to work as assistant manager in one of the projects.

She doesn’t know the feelings Natty has for her and she tells him she is in love but without telling him who he is.

Apart from modeling and singing she took part in Ananya’s company in different projects where she starts taking million worth of deals on the company’s behalf.

She falls in love with Ananya but their relationship results in an unexpected outcome.

One of the common criteria in Ethiopian film making is being melodramatic and Emanda is a witness to that, a film which tries to poke people’s feeling at any cost.
The film tells us how much Natty loves her and you wonder why he is stalking her on the phone and expects her to understand him without actually meeting her.
The surprising thing is Emanda, being his cousin’s friend, makes you wonder if he is a psychopath but latter the film tells you his true love.

The long conversations which appear over and over sound strange, making the people seem from another planet.

Even if there is freedom of creativity, film making is also a reflection of life in societies. But in this movie not only are we forced to watch a distorted version of Hollywood films but also complete distortions of real life.

The film also creates a kind of story which is confusing and has no notable themes.
Obsessed with two kinds of personalities like the myths of good and evil, this film creates characters without a life of their own but live around good people and plot to convince people their separate ways.

In this and similar scenes it is unclear what the theme is.

There is a scene where an international company signs a deal worth of millions with Ananaya’s company but its purpose is not revealed.

Related with this deal a document disappears and the characters repeat the terms "important and confidential" till the end of the film.

The amazing part is people get into a fight because of the nature and content of the document through it is not evident what the cause is.

Generally, the flow of the story is not right. It is full of coincidences which seem a bit unreal and the conversation of the characters does not seem real.

The film’s promotion poster says English subtitles. This makes it different from most Amharic films as they lack it. However, the horrendous mistakes in it make you wish that id did not have a subtitle.

Starring: Surafel Teka, Shewit Kebede, Bayush Kebede, Wosagneh Hailu, Almaz Haile, Mulu Fisseha, Abebe Worku, Genet Tesfa, Seble Worku, Haimanot Mekonnen, Yemisrach Legesse, Hermella Dereje
Director: Gebrehiwot Gebrecherkos
Script writer: Bayush Kebede
Genre: romance

Ethiopian Movie - Siste Movie
By Yelibenwork Ayele

Nardos, a pretty girl from a well to do family in Bishoftu, falls in love with Ashenafi, a badly-off barber, after he gives her a kind treatment when she experienced her first menstrual period.

She moves in with him when she learns that she is carrying his baby. Her elder brother, full of anger and a sense of hurt pride, puts the police on her track by falsely accusing Ashenafi of abducting his sister.

Ashenafi and Nardos run away to Addis Ababa where the police pick up their scent again. They are so helplessly in love with each other that they must sever family ties, sacrifice comfort and privilege, and even risk their own lives rather than let hunger or persecution from a resentful brother come between them. The film is based on a true story. 

Sisit has a poster that for the careful observer reveals too much of the plot before he/ she sees the film itself. On the poster a man and a young boy walk together holding hands, obviously father and son. In the background the face of a young pretty girl smiles from inside a dark circle.

Looking at the poster, a friend of mine easily figured out the story line. He guessed that a woman would give birth to a baby boy and die in the process leaving the infant for her husband to raise alone. The widower then would regard the baby as the apple of his eye as it is the only surviving connection he has with his late wife. My friend was proven correct.

Whether it is due to my friend’s knack for guessing the story of a film from its poster or the weakness inherent in the designing of the poster I can hardly tell. But the result was that the film was not successful in grabbing my friend’s interest.

Most Ethiopian films still have to work on creating a true-to-life child character. It appears that not many film makers take the trouble of observing child behavior or studying child psychology. As a result they treat us to the stale adult thought and speech emanating from the innocent lips of young boys and girls.

Sisit, although not a hundred percent successful in this regard, comes close to achieving it. Like Abinet’ Agonafir’s  other film, Aladankushim, this film assigns a minor role to the baby’s character. While the little girl in Aldankushim spoke in words that smacked of grown-up attitude, the little boy in Sisit manages to be childlike although he does not give us the true taste of childhood sweetness and innocence.

Abinet Agonafir is known for his songs that have been used as sound tracks in Aladankushim which he directed and Kezkaza Wolafen parts one and two directed by Tewodros Teshome. Sisit uses one of his oldest songs as a sound track and the song perfectly suits the theme of the film. 

Sisit is a kind of thriller spiced with tragedy somewhere in the middle of the story. As a film that evokes pity in the viewer it is one of a kind. It is much better than Aladankushim, which was full of action for action’s sake.

One quality of Sisit which makes it so appealing to me is the absence of scenes of flashback. Other films are plagued by moments of flashback with one of the characters recounting some of their experiences. In Sisit, Nardos tells Meftihe, her new neighbour, how she fell in love with Ashenafi and Ashenafi very briefly tells a stranger about how his wife died in hospital and why he was fleeing Addis Ababa. However, none of those two narratives is accompanied by videos that interrupt the chronological order of events in the story of the film.       

The English subtitle appearing at bottom of the screen is a grammatical and idiomatic horror. For example the subtitle gives a word-for-word translation of some Amharic idiom about a talkative man bringing birds down from the sky, which does not make sense in English.

Ethiopian Movie “Lageba Naw”
By Yelibenwork Ayele

The 105-minute long Amharic comedy film Lageba Naw (I am getting marrie
d) presents a singer whose mother pesters him day and night. She is hardly interested in his artistic exploits.

 All she wants is for her son to get married so that she can see grandchildren before she is gone.

Therefore, the story line does not go along the usual scenes of preparations for marriage or more specifically for wedding. Rather it dwells on the ordeal of finding a willing woman in seven days’ time and marrying her.  

The setbacks that Alemayehu, the hero, encounters in his quest, not for the ideal spouse or soul mate but for a woman who will fill in the position of a wife just to put his mother’s anxious heart to rest and secondary plots involving minor characters keep the audiences laughing their head off.

 Some of the films I saw over the last six months like Yeafene Fikir and Ewnet come disappointingly short of dialogue but Lageba Naw is quite unlike those. It is populated with fast-talking, articulate characters who overflow with amusing conversation every time they talk. Besides, they are all themselves. One can hardly see any trace of the author’s control on how they talk, act or express feelings. They live as freely as they should and deal with circumstances in their lives in their own individual ways, thus lending vitality to the film.

However, due to the cinema’s sound system problems some of the dialogue was lost on most of the audience. It appears, and I firmly believe it is true, that Ethiopian films are improving steadily but the cinemas are not catching up with them. A few months ago I had to see one film twice because the first time I saw it, instead of sitting relaxed to enjoy it, I had to work hard tuning out distraction from the roof which was not sound proof.
For a comedy film like Lageba Naw the dialogue matters more than the action, therefore, any problem in the sound quality of the film itself or the cinema hall might diminish the enjoyment that the audience can get from it.     

Lageba Naw maintains its tempo of fun all the way to the last minute and is worth the time for those who enjoy romantic comedy

Ethiopian Movie: Tizitah

By Tibebeselassie Tigabu

A new film entitled ‘Tizitah’  (reminiscence) premiered this week. Based on a true story the film tells the story of one man’s journey, the father of the director, Habtamu  Hibrework, through love, and the broken pieces caused by the lost love.

Mebratu, played by Girum Ermias is  a dedicated and principled man who after studying in Kenya, was assigned to work in Sidamo to eradicate a wide spread  disease which affected cattle  in the 1960’s .

His journey to Sidamo was life changing not only in terms of his career but also his personal life when he met the woman of his dreams Tsigereda and she became his Zahir, his breath, his obsession, a woman who he can’t live without.

Mebratu was promoted in his job and everything seemed too good to be true for a while until Tsigereda was killed, and then everything went upside down for him.

The film shows his despair, frustration and pain after losing the love of his life. Even if he was able to get married after his terrible loss and bear a son there was nothing which could heal his broken heart or who could make the broken pieces into a whole.

Through those problems he gave and dedicated his whole life to his son and the film depicts that story.

The fact that the film is based on a true story seems to give it an advantage in terms of coherence. The film and the film has also given emphasis to details.
One of the strongest parts of the film also is the way it tells the story telling in a distinctively Ethiopian way of as opposed to other films in this country which resort to the standard western story telling. The story shows the situation Ethiopia was in the 1960’s. Some of the scenes seem to be refreshing like the club scene where the price of food is posted on a wall indicating the price of ‘key wot’ to be 45 cents. The complaints by the club’s patrons that the price was expensive made the audience to break out in laugher, comparing it with the current price of ‘key wot’.

Even if bringing a 1960s scene seems a bit challenging for many, the film depicted the times, the clothes worn then and the music people listened to. One can notice the influence of the American music legends like Sam cook, Marvin Gay and James Brown in this country as well as local singers like Alemayehu Eshete, who seemed to adopt things quickly.

In the views of many the 1960s are confused times because of all the transformation due to what they refer to as ‘modernity’ and ‘western civilization’. The film also shows that confusion where people seem to be caught in the two worlds.

Even if some of the scenes seem a bit long, the film tries to tell the story through different metaphors. One thing can be said about the film. Its attempt to paint  the true color of life, showing  as it is with the ups and downs, seems to catch the audience’s up to the end.

As the director of the film, Mebratu Hibrework, states getting the diary of his father and living that life made things easier for him.

“I am not creating this story. I lived this life and I still remember every detail vividly like it was yesterday. For me, my dad was a hero .with all that pain and frustrations, he was there for me every step of the way. He showed me the importance of education even if he didn’t see me graduate. I took many things from him and for that they used to call me ‘his dad’s son’,” Habtamu recalls
According to Habtamu telling one’s own story is very difficult as she/ he will be emotionally involved.  Nonetheless, he believes there is no one who can tell the story better than him.

Habtamu grew up listening to the stories of his father and Tsigereda’s love story. He felt the story was bottled for up too long in him and finally decided to tell it fulfilling a longawaited dream.

The film will be begin showing at Alem cinema at the end of October.



Starring: Girum Ermias, Anteneh Asres, Mohammed Miftah, Melat Assefa, Taye Wondemu(Meta), Aster Mekonnen, Ephrem Lisanu, Biniam Bekele, Ephrem Tigabu, Bekele Meshesha, Medhanit Getachew, Tekola Teklab, Meron Getachew
Director: Habtamu Hibrework
Script writer: Anteneh Asres, Habtamu Hibrework, Girum Ermias
Producer: Sineshaw Alemu
Genre: Drama
Running time: 1hr 35 minutes

Two long lines of people waited half an hour just to get to the box office, despite the fact that it was drizzling.

Yetafene Fikir (Suppressed Love, loosely translated) brings to light the emotional crisis that two girls experience. Helen has moved in with Ermias, her boyfriend, while Lamrot has married Gezahegn (Enkusellasie Werkagegnew), an old wealthy man who was a friend of her father’s.

Ermias’s feelings for his girlfriend are dying while Gezahegn does not express his love to his wife though he still loves and cares for her. Therefore, Lamrot becomes depressed in the monotony of marriage with an old workaholic for whom her youthful passions amount to nothing more than romantic folly.

For Gezahegn, work comes first. That is his preoccupation day and night. He gives Lamrot no surprises. Every activity, whether it be visiting families or recreation, must be done strictly according to schedule. Therefore, Lamrot finds herself trapped in the richly furnished house of a 'clock-and-calendar' husband and longs for the excitement of vibrant love she has been dreaming of before committing herself to a lifelong relationship with Gezahegn.

Ermias's boredom with Helen and Lamrot's quest for love bring them together and thrusts them into a world of pleasure on a higher plane than they had ever thought possible.

The moviegoers on Wednesday afternoon were mostly young men and women. They say that the film deserves to be seen for the issue it raises. Meaza Fikre and Melat Bezabih, young nurses, said that they liked the film They think that if couples saw it together, it would strike a conversation and make them examine the status of their relationship.

"What I saw in Ermias is a common weakness among men. His initial feelings for Helen, which he construed for love, were only infatuation or just a physical attraction and in the course of time it was waning and bringing about withdrawal and arguments daily," Meaza said.

Half way through the film I could hear some distracting sound in the cinema hall. It was the sound of stifled sobs from a few rows behind me. When the film was over I found the woman who had been crying. Her eyes were puffed up from weeping copiously. Introducing herself to me as Etaferahu Bekele, she said that Lamrot's life was a mirror image of her own.
"In my eagerness to get married I accepted the first man who proposed to me. He was a wealthy man and a family friend. The age difference between us is such that he does not understand my emotional needs. Materially, I lack nothing. But I am not a happy woman." Etaferaw is now the mother of a three-year-old boy who, she says, has brought a new kind of warmth into her life.

Like Melat and Meaza, she too knows some young men who are like Ermias. "They ignore a call from their wife or girlfriend if they are dating another girl. If they answer the call, they lie to her about their whereabouts. It's very easy to lie on the cell phone."

The scenes of cell phone conversation brought the whole cinema boisterous laughter.

Almost the whole audience was laughing heartily at the bold lies people were telling while talking on their cell phone and their evasion later on when they were confronted with the situational evidence.

Ermias tells his secretary that he is going home because he is sick, but he is actually on a date with Lamrot. When Helen asks him about where he has been the whole day, he says that he has been in the office.

"But your secretary said you were sick and went home."

"No, I was not sick. She just didn't know I was in the office all the time." 
Another viewer, Anteneh, said that he was watching Yetafene Fikir for the second time. He had brought a friend along this time. He said that the first time he saw the film he felt so uncomfortable that he almost went out thirty minutes through the film. 

"I said to myself, 'I am Ermias'. I felt as if I was convicted in a court of law, but I managed to see the film to the last minute and went home resolved to be faithful to my girlfriend," Anteneh said.  

Melat Bezabhi said she liked the film and would recommend friends to see it. In her opinion, except for the dialogue, which was always to the point and less life-like, it was a very good film.  

Yetafene Fikir is the first script Martha Abebe ever wrote. She is now working on another script.