Faya Dayi

I have a lot to say about this film. I am Ethiopian, from the Oromo cultural group of Ethiopia specifically. The language my family speaks is Oromo, we call ourselves Oromo, we have a flag separate from the Ethiopian flag as well. But for a long time our people back home…

Bilal Bikile

“memories, that is all you travel with.” the things we become tethered to just accumulate, starting with our bodies, to our families, to our communities, to our faults. reminded me of how hard it is to leave something once you have this collection of things holding you…

Laura

Faya Dayi is a big mood piece, being a documentary without structure. It is often abstract and not easy to follow, since it priorities lyricism over narrative. It is visually stunning, with some absolutely beautiful cinematography. The black and white look adds so much…

Darren Carver-Balsiger

Anyone who cares about cinema — or art, or life for that matter — should see this film at their earliest opportunity. If I'm in an especially hyperbolic mood tonight, it's because this movie gave me that ineffable thrill of innovation that I haven't experienced probably…

David Conner

Disintegration of body and mind in hopes that the spirit will flourish; a search for solace in an unforgiving universe, through reality, in and around the intangible. Metaphysical barriers divide time and space, becoming blurred as one slips further into hallucinatory…

Jerry

Mimicking the intoxicating power of the khat plant, Jessica Beshir's documentary on Ethiopia's drug trade is pure poetry. Black-and-white cinematography and enchanting landscapes evoke the fine line between the harshness of the harvest and the stupor of bliss. Now showing…

MUBI

[5] When you decide to abandon traditional structures, then the onus is on you to devise an alternate structure. That’s what so many makers of these “poetic” documentaries just don’t seem to get.

Michael Sicinski

"Humans can only see physical appearances, but can we tell what's on the inside?" Gorgeous black and white photography and haunting music paint a somewhat melancholic portrait of modern Ethiopia. The film is as much a mood piece as anything else and works exceptionally…

Jesse Snoddon

A country in trance. An anti pastoral of sorts. It moves from harvesting to a series of conflict annotations about land with the idea of belonging to space and the social construction around it observed with suspicion. The beautidul high contrast black and white wimages…

Filipe Furtado