Documentary

FAYA DAYI

2021
2 HR
NOV 19 → DEC 2, 2021

Details

Released 2021, Ethiopia, United States, Qatar

Documentary

2 hours

Janus Films

Amharic with English Subtitles

Starring

Director

Jessica Beshir

In her hypnotic documentary feature, Ethiopian-Mexican filmmaker Jessica Beshir explores the coexistence of everyday life and its mythical undercurrents. Though a deeply personal project—Beshir was forced to leave her hometown of Harar with her family as a teenager due to growing political strife—the film she returned to make about the city, its rural Oromo community of farmers, and the harvesting of the country’s most sought-after export (the euphoria-inducing khat plant) is neither a straightforward work of nostalgia nor an issue-oriented doc about a particular drug culture. Rather, she has constructed something dreamlike: a film that uses light, texture, and sound to illuminate the spiritual lives of people whose experiences often become fodder for ripped-from-the-headlines tales of migration.

Full Cast

N/A

Additional Credits

Jessica Beshir Director

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Reviews

“Filmed in luminous black and white, each image more beautiful than the last, Faya Dayi is not your typical documentary.”

Shelia O’Malley

RogerEbert.com

“[ FAYA DAYI is] Unlike any other documentary you’re likely to see.”

Robert Abele

Los Angeles Times

“The languid rhythms of the filmmaking mirror the woozy impact of the drug, while a storytelling style that flickers casually between observational verité and esoteric myth-building suggests an in-and-out grasp on reality.”

Guy Lodge

Variety