Margaret Mead ’18: Ethiopiques—Revolt of the Soul

The only thing that can ruin good music is politics. In the late 1970s, Ethiopia had some of the world’s best music and the ugliest politics. For a while, it seemed like the music might be lost, but an intrepid record collector would wait out the Socialist Derg regime, in order to bring the country’s sounds to the wider world. The groove will not be denied in Maciej Bochniak’s Ethiopiques: Revolt of the Soul (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 Margaret Mead Film Festival.

Frankly, Amha Ashete was already defying the old regime when he started producing sessions of Ethiopian music without official approval of the emperor. However, nobody responsible for enforcing the law hassled him. Technically, he even had to smuggle his own records into the country, but the customs inspectors looked the other way (in exchange for comp copies). However, everything changed following the civil war and the ascension of the Soviet backed Derg junta.

Amha happened to be abroad when they consolidated power, so he stayed in exile based on his family’s advice (those who remained did not fare so well). Eventually, Amha also had success in America as a restauranteur and night club owner, but he assumed his career in music was over. Then he met Francis Falceto, a French record collector, who developed an evangelistic interest in Ethiopian music. (It is hard to blame him, considering how infectious this blend of jazz, funk, and highlife-esque music sounds.) He was determined to reissue Ashete’s sessions on CD, but the expatriate producer insisted they had to wait for the fall of the Stalinist regime, so the artists would not be subject to state reprisals and could freely share in the proceeds.

Of course, it eventually happened (weren’t the late 1980s just the best time ever?). Falceto’s Ethiopiques series became a cult hit that grew into a crossover sensation. It was a rockier process for the musicians to restart their performance careers, but that too largely came to pass, albeit after a few false starts and short-term hiatuses. Yet, the shy but eminently respected Girma Beyene was left out of the revival. The third act of Bochniak’s stirring doc captures his overdue comeback.

You can never go wrong with a film that sounds as good as Ethiopiques. As an added bonus, Bochniak also makes it rather stylish visually as well, incorporating evocative photo-real-animated segments to recreate the milestones of Ashete’s career. He also captures some live performances that should definitely get everyone’s toes tapping.

It is fitting that the Ethiopian musicians who were oppressed under Communism are now documented by a Polish filmmaker and a largely Polish crew. While Bochniak was a young child under Communism, he presumably still has a sense of how things were from his family and colleagues, which would help him relate to his subjects. He also clearly trusts their music to hold viewers interest, which fans will appreciate. The result is a terrific music documentary that is probably doomed to be dubbed the Ethiopian Buena Vista Social Club, but deserves it own identity. Very highly recommended, Ethiopiques: Revolt of the Soul screens this Friday (10/19), as part of the Margaret Mead Film Festival, at the American Museum of Natural History.

BFF ’11: The Athlete

Abebe Bikila scored yet another first for his country when his cinematic life story became the first Ethiopian film submitted for best foreign language Academy Award consideration last year, thirty seven years after his death. An iconic Olympic medalist, Bikila’s short but remarkable life is stirringly dramatized in Davey Frankel & Rasselas Lakew’s The Athlete (trailer here), which screens during the 2011 Brooklyn Film Festival.

The significance of an Ethiopian winning the marathon (barefoot, no less) at the 1960 Rome Games was hard to miss. Bikila’s gold was the first won by an Olympian from both his country and the entire continent of Africa. Four years later, he became the first athlete from anywhere to win back-to-back marathon gold. However, the 1968 games in Mexico were considered something of a debacle for Bikila. Then disaster truly struck.

Throughout Athlete, the audience sees Bikila’s triumphs in flashbacks, while watching the Olympian deal with the tribulations of 1969. At first, it just seems to be the case of an athlete struggling to come to terms with the impending end of his career. Unfortunately, an auto accident renders Bikila quadriplegic. While treatment in Britain restored the use of his arms, Bikila clearly would never run another marathon. Yet, he would indeed find other outlets for his competitive drive.

Athlete follows sports movie conventions up to a point, but it presents a particularly complex and intriguing coach-and-athlete relationship. A Finnish expat by way of Sweden, Onni Niskanen was once active in the Finnish resistance to the Soviet invasion. Arguably, Athlete offers more back-story for Niskanen (altering it a bit for dramatic purposes) than for Bikila. Yet, this is rather by design, to emphasize the solitary nature of the Ethiopian long distance runner.

Though he is not exactly a dead ringer for the Bikila we see in the Olympic broadcast video (nicely integrated by co-editors Frankel and Matt Mayer), co-director Lakew is appropriately intense as the titular athlete. In a finely tuned performance, Swedish character actor Dag Malmberg brings a genuinely human dimension to Niskanen. Likewise, Ruta Gedmintas (lately seen in The Borgias) has some surprisingly memorable moments as his English nurse Charlotte.

Though Athlete’s conclusion is unabashedly manipulative, it is also well executed, so even cynical audiences will find themselves caught up in the swelling sentiment. Frankly, this is how sports movies are supposed to work. A real crowd pleaser (wrapping-up well before the horrors of the Marxist Mengistu regime), Athlete screens again during BFF next Sunday (6/12) at the Brooklyn Height Cinema.

From Ethiopia to Israel: Live and Become

They are considered the descendents of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. For centuries the Jews of Ethiopia, the so-called Falasha, endured persecution, while maintaining their religious traditions. Their precarious position finally became untenable in the 1980’s, when faced with the lethal combination of catastrophic drought and the oppressive Marxist Mengistu regime. With the support of the C.I.A., Israel smuggled thousands of Falasha out through the Sudan. Though young Solomon is not Jewish, Operation Moses represents his only chance for life in Radu Mihaileanu’s Live and Become (trailer here), now available on DVD.

Solomon’s family might be Christian, but like the beleagured Falasha, they are still dying amid the violent chaos of a Sudanese refugee camp. To save her son, Solomon’s mother gives him up forever, ordering him to take the place of a recently deceased Falasha boy on a flight to Israel, instructing him to “live and become.” It is a sacrifice that will cause years of confusion and guilt for Solomon.

Deeply traumatized, Solomon, now known as Schlomo, is initially a problem child in Israel. Adopted by a left-wing Israeli couple of French descent, Schlomo still feels socially alienated, but finds love and support from his adopted mother Yael. Indeed, the entire Falasha community has trouble integrating, in part due to widespread skepticism regarding their religious legitimacy. After all, the Queen of Sheba was not Jewish.

LAB is in the tradition of films like Doctor Zhivago, which tell an epic story grounded in history, from a very personal perspective. While occasionally heavy-handed, as when Schlomo has to debate whether God is white or black, LAB is emotionally engrossing, from start to finish.

Mihaileanu assembled an excellent cast, who entirely disappear into their respective roles without appearing to act at all. Particularly moving is Yael Abecassis as Schlomo’s Israeli mother, giving easily the most touching maternal performance in recent memory. Of the three talented actors playing Schlomo at various ages, the youngest, Moshe Agazai, is the most remarkable. He is absolutely convincing in the film’s crucial early scenes.

Watching LAB brings to mind Agnieszka Holland’s Europa, Europa. Both are excellent films based around young protagonists that form mirror opposites of each other. In Holland’s film a young boy must pretend not to be Jewish to survive the Holocaust. Conversely in LAB, Schlomo’s only chance for life comes through passing as a Falasha Jew, in order to reach the safe haven of Israel.

LAB is a riveting film that is also quite informative about Operation Moses and the Falasha experience in general. A winner of many audience awards at film festivals around the world, it releases on DVD today.