The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
Film - Anbessa followed by Q&A with Loretta Lees and Laura Hammond
Director Mo Scarpelli
Wednesday 4th December 2019
Part of the London Migration Film Festival.
18:30 - 20:30, The Bertha DocHouse Screen, Curzon Bloomsbury, The Brunswick, London, WC1N 1AW.
Tickets £12.50 full price, discounts available.
Anbessa
Anbessa captures one boy taking on modernization on his own terms, revealing a unique and magical perspective on the myth of “progress” that entraps us all.
Ten-year-old Asalif and his mother have been displaced from their farmland on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by the construction of a condominium. As they watch the buildings take shape, they are reminded in small and big ways that their country’s dream of “progress” is not for them.
To fight back against those casting him out and those threatening his mother’s safety, Asalif taps into a fantasy of becoming his hero: the lion (“anbessa” in Amharic). Asalif uses his imagination to battle forces beyond his control.
His newfound power and fantasy take him to places he never imagined inside and out of the condo until finally, Asalif must find the strength that resides in him as a boy, and shed the lion persona, in order to deal with the tides of change and violence that are usurping a community, a country, and his own identity.
This is screening as part of the London Migration Film Festival and will be followed by a panel discussion with Professor Loretta Lees an urban geographer and international expert on gentrification and Laura Hammond, Professor of Development at SOAS whose interests include food security, conflict, forced migration and diasporas.
Filmmaker: Mo Scarpelli
Country of Production: Ethiopia Italy USA
Year: 2019
Length: 85mins
Language(s): Amharic with English Subtitles
Genre: Documentary
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Professor Loretta Lees, an urban geographer and international expert on gentrification, and Laura Hammond, Professor of Development at SOAS whose interests include food security, conflict, forced migration and diasporas.
Tickets can be booked through the Bertha DocHouse Cinema website.