Tradition comes on silver screens

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - The director of Zema Hiwot has made a traditional film entitled Yechereka Lekso [weeping under moonlight]. Having directed many TV plays, Yared Gebresillassie is not new to making films, but the five years research the film took, has made his recent job harder than his previous. “This is the first Ethiopian film made after conducting serious research on northern Amhara traditions. “People have been complaining a lot on the westernized films. And this film has that true natural quality”, Yared said.

The story of Ychereka Lekso revolves around proverbial rural love and courtship theme yekenfer wedaj. “The context of this tradition is taken from the conflicting Amhara region where the family would allow a certain person for their children to marry and their children will have a different desire.” Yared said.
In this tradition often the girlfriend and boyfriend do not end up getting married because the family’s desire has a large say in their decisions because they are scared of being ostracized. In the film the characters will go through traditional mediations called Abegar and Duberty. They will also go through the witchcraft process Chengor as their last resort. There are many Zar [witchcraft] and ritual ceremonies. With special emphasis in the Wollo regions, the director states that they have gone to 18 regions in order to shoot this film. Transportation is one of the areas they have faced challenges. “There were times where we had to walk for two days with our equipment because there were no proper roads”, the director explains.

The film shooting period alone has taken over three years.
Yared directed, produced and wrote the film which cost 150,000 Birr in the making. “To make a film in the countryside takes less money, but it demands more effort.” Yared said, “Making a city commercial script is simple but such films as ours’ might offend the natives, so you have to pay due attention to details.”
Among the costs which took the major share is the construction of settings at a forest near CMC. “We constructed a village like they do in Hollywood, and we have to keep in mind the material, costume and dialect of the actual place. And that has demanded serious research.”
Yared states that he made the film intentionally to coincide with the Millennium and he has paid due attention towards making it as traditional as possible. “The place we used for our film is Wollo and despite being labeled as the Amhara region, the place has a variety of ethnicity.”

The director also wanted to pay due respect by making the film in the land of his singing idol and actor Fiseha-belay Yimam. “He was a great artist of many talents and he was traditional in all sense”, he said, “I have sent my costume designers to Wollo to do a research on the material and type of dresses before we started”.
The one challenge that Yared faced in the making of this film was on the makeup of the actors he took from Addis. “The female actors have their eyebrows done and that has been a minor problem.” Yared later on used the local cast to avoid such problems.
Chirotaw Kelkay, Daniel Muluneh, Kasaye Gebeyehu, Nigist Hawaz, Daniel Hailemariam, Seyoum Tefera are among the theatrical actors that have acted in this film.
The film Yechereka Lekso will premier in a couple of a weeks time. •

August 4, 2007