If the director and producers of Ethiopian film Difret were not having enough difficulty in funding the film, the fact that they insisted on making it in Amharic, Ethiopia’s official language, made matters all the more complicated.
“I thought [the plot] would be lost if I had done the film in English, and I wanted this film to mean something for Ethiopians, especially young girls in Ethiopia,” said Zeresenay Mehari, director of Difret, at a question-and-answer session following the film’s screening at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF) on October 28.
The director was joined by producer Mehret Mandefro, who added that there was interest from investors to make the film in English and to have Hollywood actors.
“[Funding] was mostly done through donations and the goodwill of people that we met, and largely because Zeresenay had a vision to make the movie in Amharic, with Ethiopian actors, and to shoot on 35 millimetre [film], which we pulled off,” the producer said.
They also discussed Angelina Jolie’s role as executive producer, and said that she has been promoting the film within her own humanitarian work.
World premiere
“Angelina became involved at the very last minute. We had already finished the film, had cut it, and were about three weeks from having the world premiere at Sundance,” producer Mandefro said.
She added that one of the other producers had a mutual friend with Jolie, and suggested sending the film to her to ask her to be an ambassador for it.
“We sent her the film, and didn’t really think anything of it. A week later, she called us, and [said,] ‘I love it. What do you guys need?’ At that point, we had raised all the money, so we said, ‘Well, your name!” the producer said.
As for casting, the director said it was the longest process, taking them eight months, as most of the actors are making a debut in cinema. He added that casting of the main character of the young girl who is charged with murder after killing her rapist was particularly challenging as there aren’t many professional teenaged actors in Ethiopia.
“We made 5,000 copies of a flyer, and started going to high schools and elementary schools and passing them out. That’s how we found [the young actress],” he said.
The word ‘difret’ in Ethiopia has a double meaning of courage and the act of being raped or violated.
