FAYA DAYI

Special Features: One week only, Oct. 1-7! Q&A with filmmaker Jessica Beshir following the 7:15 show on Fri, Oct. 1 and the 4:00 show on Sat, Oct. 2

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. DIR/SCR/PROD Jessica Beshir. Ethiopia/U.S./Qatar, 2021, b&w, 120 min. In Amharic, Harari and Oromo with English subtitles. NOT RATED

No AFI Member passes accepted.

Run Time: 120 Minutes

Opening Date: Friday, October 01, 2021

Genre: Documentary