Bibliograph

Faya dayi, a film by Jessica Beshir

Type

Label

Faya dayi, a film by Jessica Beshir

Language

amh

Characteristic

videorecording

Intended audience

Not rated (IMDB)

Main title

Faya dayi

Oclc number

1334496337

Responsibility statement

a film by Jessica Beshir

Runtime

118

Series statement

The Criterion collection, 1141

Summary

A sublime work of personal vision, the debut feature by the Mexican Ethiopian filmmaker Jessica Beshir is a hypnotic documentary immersion in the world of Ethiopia's Oromo community, a place where one commodity khat, a euphoria-inducing plant once prized for its supposedly mystical properties holds sway over the rituals and rhythms of everyday life. As if under the influence of the drug itself, Faya Dayi unfurls as intoxicating, trance state cinema, capturing intimate moments in the existence of everyone from the harvesters of the crop to people lost in its narcotic haze to a desperate but determined younger generation searching for an escape from the region's political strife. The director's exquisite monochrome cinematography each frame a masterpiece sculpted from light and shadow and the film's time-bending, elliptical editing create a ravishing sensory experience that hovers between consciousness and dreaming

Technique

live action

resource.variantTitle

Fayadayi

Classification