“Yifelegal” and “Sekaramu Posta” to hit screens in Europe

By Alemayehu Seife Selassie

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia- The Comedy film by Seifu Fantahun, “Yifelegal” and Serawit Fikre’s recent production “Sekaamu posta” are going to go out for a viewing in Holland and Sweden on August 2nd.
The viewing arrangement of these films came about as the organizers of the Ethiopian Soccer tournament in Europe saw the two films at Alem Cinema and picked them to premier in Europe.

Seifu Fantahun the actor and director of Yifelegal said that he is really excited to have his film premiered at the annual Ethiopian Soccer tournament that allows many Ethiopians residing in Europe to come together. “There are going to be many musical concerts and festival events that will attract a large audience”, Seifu Fantahun said. At a time SSI have interviewed the director close to 24 days were left for the premier and 300 tickets have already been sold. And Seifu explains that figure is encouraging. “It is hard to get the common break time where everyone could come and enjoy, so screening abroad is a tricky task.”

“A friend who once went to screen his film at the time of the large Ethiopian US soccer was taking place ended up having only 31 viewers and things like that give you a hint that music might be the one thing that sells during such occasions”, he said.
The director is currently enjoying the screening of his film in Addis Ababa, but he is thwarted by the lack of a promoter that would buy the package of screening the film to the countryside. Among the plans that the director has made one is to release the DVD in the US. “But we still have a three months screening contract with the cinema halls. And it is after that screening time is over that we will consider the full international tour,” he added.
The film Yifelegal which was released a couple of months earlier than Sekaramu Posta will be premiered for at least three more months before it goes out to its international tours and DVD releases.

The director of Yifelegal also highlighted that he is considering the viewing of Yifelegal at the Cannes Film Festival. “We are hoping to take part in the festival where our brother Zelalem the director of “The 11th Hour” took part last year.” Seifu said. “In the future there is a great tendency that the Hollywood will be looking more and more towards stories in Africa and it is time that we present our films abroad” , he said.•

July 14, 2007