"This is just one of the traditions that is harmful and backwards in its way" - Filmmaker Zeresenay Berhane Mehari on DIFRET

Difret by Zeresenay Berhane Mehari is based on a shockingly true story about the dangerous tradition of Ethiopia of kidnapping girls and forcing them into marriage. This film focuses on one particular case from the nineties, when a girl in a village three hours outside from Addis Ababa shot and killed one of her kidnappers to escape. With the law against the 14-year-old girl, her only hope came from a young and tenacious lwayer, whose organisation helps children and women and provides them services in Ethiopia.
 
The film won the Audience Award last year at Sundance and was praised worldwide for its audaciousness in revealing such a little talked about issue. A year later, it has opened in UK cinemas, where it is bound to strike up debates and raise awareness on the contrast between tradition and criminality.
 
This interview was counducted at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival for FRED Film Radio. To listen to the full interview, CLICK HERE.
 
MATT MICUCCI: How did you come across this story?
ZERESENAY BERHANE MEHARI: I was born and raised in Ethiopia. I left for the US to go to school in '96, and this case happened shortly after. I did not hear about it until 2003, and then in 2005 I met the lawyer [Meaza Ashenafi], who is an amazing person. I heard from her about her organisation's work in terms of providing legal services for women and children in Ethiopia. This particular case grabbed my attention. I had always been aware of adbuction for marriage, but having lived in the city and these things happening in the villages, I didn't pay too much attention to it. But suddenly, hearing about it made me ask myself many questions. Suddenly, this case had opened a door in the society and we were all forced to have and honest and open discussion about tradition and criminality.
 
MM: Do you hope this message will raise awareness on this issue on an international level?
ZBM: Absolutely. Even though I made this film primarily for an Ethiopian audience, I also had one eye looking to the west. This is just one of the traditions that is harmful and backwards in its way - there are other traditions we need to talk about. So I'm hoping that the west will be urged to think about how to prevent them and how to combat them, as something that has been handed down from generation to generation. And in my research I learned that it doesn't just happen in Ethiopia, but also in many other African countries, in parts of Europe and South East Asia.
 
MM: Why do we not see many films from Ethiopia?
ZBM: I was fortunate to go to the US in one of the best film schools in the world, and worked in Hollywood for ten years doing every job on the film set you can think of. Ethiopia does make a lot of films - I think 80 to 85 a year - and the reason why not a lot of films from there cross over is not because the stories aren't good, but because the filmmaking techniques are not up to standards. There are a couple of films that make it to film festivals, but the difficulty is not having crews and resources. We shot Difret on film and had to send it to Mumbay to be developed, because Ethiopia doesn't have film labs. But I'm also very interested in helping young filmmakers realise their dreams, I want to become part of the film industry there and I'm hoping that the success of this film will be inspiring for this reason too.
 
Difret is out in UK cinemas from the 6th of March. To listen to the full interview with filmmaker Zeresenay Berhane Mehari from the 64th Berlin International Film Festival on FRED Film Radio, CLICK HERE. To read CineCola's review of the film, CLICK HERE.