Difret

Greetings again from the darkness. Maybe the best part of "based on a true story" movies is that they allow for a quick spotlight on both unheralded heroes and under-the-radar injustices around the globe. The first feature from writer/director Zeresenay Mehari brings warranted attention to the barbaric tradition of telefa in parts of rural Ethiopia. This so-called cultural rite involves a posse of men abducting a young girl whom one of them has chosen to be his wife.

Tizita Hagere plays Hirut, a 14 year old girl who is excelling in school and dreaming of attending university. While skipping home from school one day, Hirut is abducted by a group of men on horseback, who lock her away in a nearby house. Later she is visited by the man who wants to make her his wife. He beats and rapes her, leaving her to sleep injured on the dirt floor. The next day, Hirut tries to escape and ends up shooting her would-be husband. She is charged with murder, and it's here that we come to understand the lack of civil rights or equality when it comes to measuring the worth of a man versus a woman in this community.

Hirut's case comes to the attention of Meaza Ashenafi (Meron Getnet), a partner in the Andinet Women Lawyers Association. She fights for the rights of women and girls in a society where few rights exist. It's clear to any reasonable person that Hirut's actions were in self-defense, but reasonableness is not the determining factor … in fact, the village elders hold a community meeting and hear from Hirut's father and the father of the dead would-be husband. We are able to compare this form of village justice to the equally unbalanced scales of the courts.

The actual 1996 case of Aberash Bekale (on which this story is based) was a turning point in the legal system for Ethiopian women. This horrific process of abduction for marriage does still go on, but not in the mass numbers of the past. Of course, even once is too many. The film does a nice job of contrasting cultural versus civil laws, and how not all "traditions" should be continued simply because they are labeled as such.

Mr. Mehari's film has done well on the festival circuit, and certainly is boosted by the presence of Executive Producer Angelina Jolie. It's a real world example of just how important education and equality is, and how many of us take this for granted, while others live in areas where defiance could cost them their liberty and life.

Set in 1996 near Addis Abeba, Ethiopia at the age of fourteen, Hirut gets abducted after school by a gang of horseman. She is taken away as is the custom to be married to her abductor. They beat and abuse her and she decides to escape, but in doing so she manages to kill the would be husband.

The 'customs courts' dictates that a life for a life should be the case but from the start this is not an ordinary case but the law seems to be blind to the mitigating circumstances. Measza is a pro bono lawyer working for an organisation that helps the vulnerable of society and she decides to take on the case; this is their story.

Now this is based on real events and was produced by Angelina Jolie. It is all very well acted, filmed, directed and has a pacing that means you will not get bored. The story as a resonance that comes with all stories of injustice and as such – some have found it to be 'unoriginal'. However, I found this to be compelling and rewarding. It is in Amharic and sub titled in English with a run time of 99 minutes. I saw this described as 'arthouse' but I would place this firmly under the genre of drama and think this will appeal to lovers of World cinema and those who like a story told plain with all ambiguity forgotten – recommended.

As a Muslim Bangladeshi woman once told me in reference to a recent "National Geographic Magazine" story "The Changing Face of Saudi Women", "Our problem is that men should learn to keep it in their pants!" The solution according to male tradition has been in "placing the onus on the victim" which is just another element in support of female enslavement, and as shown in the film, "Difret", the story of a kidnapped girl, Hirut. The male history of what it means to be a female is one of: maintain the household; provide sex on demand; provide male heirs (w/female infanticide not uncommon). Let's remind ourselves of the list of almost warfare style tactics for male dominion over females: Asset control, role guilt, child marriages, domestic violence, FGM, acid attacks, kidnapping as shown in this film, foot binding once common in China, isolation/exclusion, and stoning. One would think that the moral compass of religion would provide a safety net for women, but all the major religions were created for an illiterate populace where strength governed the ethos. In Muslim cultures Sharia law is overseen by males. In Judaism the patriarchs write the rules which saw women as jealous, vain, lazy and gluttonous; likely to gossip and receptive to the occult/witchcraft. Christianity with special emphasis given to Catholic, Orthodox, LDS religions simply exorcised the word "égalité".

So what is to be done? Hirut had the answer. Education! Educating girls would have a singular impact toward maintaining the health of the family, and by extension the community. A few critical locals promoting female education will have far ranging regional influence, for example, Afghanistan.

I saw this film for my acting class and we're going to meet the filmmakers next week, so I thought I'd share my views on it. As far as the story goes, it's extremely predictable. I'm not going spoil anything, but let's just say that if you watch a lot of movies, you can see the ending from a mile away.

With that being said, I did enjoy this movie and I can see how some may be turned off by it. There are unsettling images along with a controversial plot that shows how much our culture in America is different in Africa. The characters were fresh and not clichéd. As for those scumbag abductors, I'd love to see the tables turned on them because I guarantee that they wouldn't like it one bit.

Overall, it's a decent movie. I'm not going to lie to you, the reader, and say it's a terrible film but at the same time, it's no masterpiece. It's good enough to recommend it and I hope that it gets a theatrical release. Not to mention getting rated by the MPAA, no doubt it'll get an R or PG-13 rating. If you can handle the material for what it is and adapt to the pacing, you'll be glad you saw it!

A bright 14-year-old girl is on her way home from school when men on horses swoop in and kidnap her. But brave Hirut (Tizita Hagere) grabs a rifle and tries to escape, but ends up shooting her captor. Meaza Ashenafi (Meron Getnet), a woman lawyer, arrives from the city to represent Hirut and argue that she acted in self-defense. Meaza embarks on a collision course between enforcing civil authority and abiding customary law, risking the work of her women's legal-aid practice to save Hirut's life. Based on a true story, the film brings to the forefront the immoral patriarchal culture of Ethiopia where the tradition is to kidnap girls to marry them. It also informs of the efforts of the gradual change brought on through progressive court laws. There are from time to time slow and dramatic overstatements, scenes that make the film 'filmy' like cranking up the score during the initial abduction of Hirut or diffusing the tension of a car chase by exiting the scene with a fade to black not long after it begins. To make the film look real everything in it is spelled out through dialogues and nothing is nuanced reducing the hangover from the movie.

However, "Difret" is an undeniably powerful unpacking one of the ugliest stories imaginable making it worth your time and thought.