Teza

The film takes one on a whirlwind journey of what happened not just in Ethiopia but the generation of that age. It is a sharp commentary on communism's excess. After all this was the era during which Italy's Red Brigade and Germany's Baader-Meinhof were coming into their own terrorizing their home communities. A film that tries to do justice to such a deeply felt wound in the Ethiopian and world psyche can be forgiven a few excesses, chief among which is its length.

The film is artistically well thought out, and one can tell Gerima had plenty of time during those 14 years to develop his ideas and refine them. It does not try to be clever except when it combines the protagonists problems with racial problems then existent in Germany. And by the way, there was an Ethiopian man that was thrown off a balcony around that time. The only difference is that in real life the man did not survive the fall.

This film is not for shrinking violets or those in denial. And those whose revisionism allows them the myopia of seeing those times in a golden light will find the stark reality of those violent times too accessible to brush away or ignore.

In all it is a portrait of a place and point in time, of people, a country and ideals that are no longer with us.

Bravo to Gerima and all who help present this palpable, smoothly told(overall) story of a neglected and wasted time.