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FAYA DAYI

  • 2021
  • 2 HR
  • NOV 19 → DEC 2
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Details
Released September 3, 2021
Ethiopia, United States, Qatar
2 hours
Janus Films
Amharic with English Subtitles
Starring
  • N/A
Director

Jessica Beshir

Film Information

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.

Film Stills

Full Cast
N/A
Additional Credits
Jessica Beshir Director

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

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