![](/img/wiki_up/teza 2008.jpg)
TEZA
Ethiopian/ Germany, 2008, 140 minutes, Colour.
Aaron Arefe.
Directed by Haile Gerima.
This is the story of Ethiopia in the latter part of the 20th century. It is personalised in the story of an intellectual, the background of his growing up in Ethiopia, family life, politics, oppression. The man goes for some time to Germany, experiencing a different culture, eventually returning to Ethiopia.
This is an opening up of Ethiopian to a wider audience. The location photography brings the country to life. The experience of the boy, young man and his family indicate the hardships and poverty of the period.
On his return to Ethiopia, there is a Maoist government, a politically difficult situation for a sub-Saharan country.
This film received a Commendation from the SIGNIS jury in Venice, 2008.
1. The director, his Ethiopian background? An Ethiopian story? Audience interest in Ethiopia, its 20th century history, the legacy of Haile Selassie, the Maoist revolution, its overthrow after Civil War? The 1990s and rebuilding?
2. The Ethiopian settings, the village, the lake, the Mussolini Monument and memories of the Italian presence? The village, the church, homes? The contrast with the capital, hotels, courts, government?
3. The episodes in Germany, West Germany, Cologne in the 1970s, migrants, the clubs, protests, apartments, medical studies, universities? The change in the 1980s? Presence in East Berlin? The coming down of the wall?
4. The writer-director and his Ethiopian perspective, audiences identifying with him, his identifying with the central character? Hopes, social concern, the experiences of failure, openness to possibilities?
5. The structure, injuries, the voice-over and the narrative, the central figure and his mother, leaving home, surviving, his leg, fall from the balcony? His return?
6. The flashbacks, constructing a linear narrative, the interplay of past and present within this framework? The central character, his childhood in identification with Ethiopia, going to Germany, his return, the airport, his limp, his mother and weeping, home, the family, the church? His mother kneeling? The critique of religion? Observations, the military, mothers and children, brutality? The teacher and the futile location at the time? The young man returning, women, relationships, the pregnant woman, wandering? The reflections, memories returning? The effect?
7. The central character at home, after the medical experience in Germany, his age, regrets, defending the woman?
8. The coming of the Maoist military, the oppression, trying to survive? His being sent to East Germany, the falling of the Berlin wall?
9. The return, the sadness of the experiences of his life, audiences empathising with him, understanding the experience? The 1970s and the terrorists in Europe? The 1980s
and revolutions and governments in Africa?