Difret (2015)  

Review: written Oct 2015

Effective telling of pivotal change to rural tradition of abduction into marriage in Ethiopia

This Ethiopian film, benefitting from support by producer and women’s rights campaigner Angelina Jolie, is a pleasant surprise. I had no expectations going in, not being familiar with the story, but finished it surprised, educated, and feeling exposed in a genuinely non Hollywood way to another culture and its values.

This true story of a young teenage girl abducted in order to be married in rural Ethiopia in 1996 has a real hook in its two main actors, Meron Getnet and Tazita Hegere, working as a story thanks to a non-sensationalist and matter of fact way it is told.

This is not focussed on Hirut’s abduction and rape, but rather on the fact she fought back, and this resulted in her lawyer taking her side and fighting back against the system.. it’s about women taking back their rights and place in society, but done in a non-preachy way. The story appears to have been condensed somewhat, with some moments of the drama veering towards unlikely coincidence, such as arriving back to her house just in time to see the police reclaim their prisoner but too late to do anything about it. On the other hand, moments which could have been sensationalised – Hirut’s visit to her village ending in villagers shooting at their car as they leave, are glossed over and cut quickly away to the human and legal drama instead. In truth, some of those cuts are slightly unsuccessful, leaving the viewer to put two and two together with the aid of a hurried line of exposition. But this is a minor issue when the milieu and characters are presented in such a genuine way as to help you stay in the movie despite some stumbles in the flow of the script. And while the editing results in some jarring moments, the cinematography has enough handheld work to add drama where it is appropriate, but static enough when the characters need to breath. Considering the location work and likely budget, it’s really not bad.. the occasional wide shots of Ethiopia are quite revealing, with green and farmland replacing my rather unfounded view of it as dry and dusty. While the rural traditions leading to the event are condemned, the culture as a whole is not, with the meeting of the tribal elders showing their own brand of wisdom in how they deal with situations internally.

In the end, it is the empathy between the young Hirut and her lawyer that are compelling, and the message that ultimately, no-one is above the law. It is the little stories and events that can rise to become society changing, when someone is willing to seize the moment and take a stand.