This week our lifetsyle news team attended the Los Angeles screening and reception for the award winning film DIFRET – A FILM BY ZERESENAY BERHANE MEHARI – EXECUTIVE PRODUCED by ANGELINA JOLIE. This film, is amazing. A must see for all.
DIFRET is the official submission from Ethiopia for Best Foreign Language Film for the 87th Academy Awards. DIFRET has been winning hearts and minds on the festival circuit earning the Audience Award at Sundance 2014 Film Festival and the Audience Award at the 2014 Berlinale International Film Festival – Panorama Section. Standing ovations and critical accolades have pushed DIFRET out there underscoring this story of historical social justice that ultimately changed a culture steeped in tradition.
DIFRET will be opening in Los Angeles for one week only beginning on December 12. We will be setting up press days in early December. The filmmaker is available for interviews now via phone or email.
Film Summary
Three hours outside of Addis Ababa, a bright 14-year-old girl is on her way home from school when men on horses swoop in and kidnap her. The brave Hirut grabs a rifle and tries to escape, but ends up shooting her would-be husband. In her village, the practice of abduction into marriage is common and one of Ethiopia’s oldest traditions.
Meaza Ashenafi, an empowered and tenacious young lawyer, arrives from the city to represent Hirut and argue that she acted in self-defense. Meaza boldly embarks on a collision course between enforcing civil authority and abiding by customary law, risking the ongoing work of her women’s legal-aid practice to save Hirut’s life.
Based on a real-life story, this film goes beneath the layer of polite social customs to explore an aggressively rooted patriarchy that perpetuates inhospitable conditions for women in Ethiopia and portrays the complexity of a country’s transformation toward equal rights, featuring the courageous generation that dares to own it. – Sundance Film Festival
