Beti and Amare
Andy Siege | Ethiopia 2013 | 1h34m | Amharic with English subtitles | Cert 15

To celebrate Halloween African style, this unique, strangely engaging and genre-blurring film is part fantasy sci-fi, part historical romantic drama. Set in 1936 in an Ethiopia disrupted by World War II, it follows Beti, a young Ethiopian girl who flees Mussolini’s troops to the more peaceful south of the country. As the enemy moves closer and her situation reaches a crisis, an unexpected arrival from the sky irrevocably changes the course of her existence. Alternating between dreamlike and nightmarish, this low-budget but innovative film makes stunning use of landscape and powerful imagery for an intensely visual experience.