User Reviews

In 1930s Ethiopia, Beti is a teenage girl, at threat from the young men of the local militia and on guard from Italian soldiers. Then fate intervenes in the form of an alien visitor... or is that in her mind? Honestly, as the film jumps from colour to monochrome without discernible reason, and as two, or possibly three, interpretations of events conflate, it's hard to say what has happened - but nor was I particularly interested.

It's a visually striking film - really impressively so given the reported budget of USD13,000 and tiny crew - and Hiwot Asres gives a strong central performance. But it's underwritten and doesn't seem to amount to much. There's enough here to suggest that Siege the director may be worth keeping an eye on, but not enough to recommend this film.

Saw this at the IMAGINE film festival 2015 in Amsterdam. Was not boring overall, in spite of the unmistakable fact that nothing much happens. I needed some adjustment time in order to get used to the tempo that is normal in the Ethiopian countryside. I believe this slow pace to be true to reality, because most of the day is filled with tedious tasks like getting water from a far-away waterhole which takes hours on foot, or patiently trying to catch a rabbit for food.

The "alien" who landed looked unrealistically like a normal human, except for his extraordinary teeth. I found that a bit odd, and it could have been used differently to make this story more compelling. On the other hand, later on he shows other (unearthly) capabilities, like an alternative way to catch a rabbit instead of a snare with a carrot to lure the animal into the clamp as per the standard method demonstrated to him by Beti.

I had some problems with the frequent changes between B&W and colour. All the time I assumed it meant something, but I did not get it at all. It made me think that it was a bit artificial, but I cannot imagine it to have no underlying meaning. The director seems able to do better but had to deal with obvious constraints, be it self-inflicted or for other reasons we don't know of. The remarkably small budget shows, but I'm not sure it was the only constraint for the film makers.