Besela or “The Scar”

We hope this film will shift the world’s gaze back to Tigray, igniting action for the enormous rehabilitation and recovery effort that has not eventuated since the war ended, and calling for the full realisation of the Ethiopia-Tigray peace agreement signed in Pretoria in late November 2022. Our intention is to screen Besela across Ethiopia together with facilitated discussions which aim to promote healing and reconciliation. We also hope that Besela will spark something deeper in its audience — a reckoning, not just for Ethiopians, but for all societies grappling with the legacies and cycles of inter-ethnic oppression, hate speech, authoritarianism, and prolonged territorial disputes.

Wars don’t end with ceasefires and Tigray is slipping from global memory. This film is an urgent call to action to turn our attention back to a place that desperately needs our help.

We aim to a) create an audience connection between the international community and the people of Tigray who desperately need your help, b) spark honest conversations across Ethiopia to break the cycle of inter-regional or inter-ethnic violence, and c) create a narrative tool for reflection about the causes and consequences of conflict worldwide.

I first arrived in Tigray in mid 2021, working with the UN Refugee Agency, during a period when the region was under near-total siege. During this time, electricity, internet, phone service, fuel, medicine, and transport in and out of the region were cut off. Even humanitarian agencies struggled to deliver aid. Journalists were not allowed access, and in my role, I could not speak publicly about what I was witnessing. I lived alongside communities as thousands of people died from preventable illness and hunger. I watched Tigray rapidly deteriorate under the cover of darkness, when the world’s attention turned to Ukraine. What stayed with me most was not only the suffering, but the quiet determination to keep going, and the ways in which Tigrayan’s showed up for one another, as the world abandoned them. This became the story that I wanted to tell.
I am making this film alongside award-winning documentary filmmaker Jonny Stern and talented local Tigrayan filmmaker Ammanuel Hailemariam. We have been working as a core creative team since mid-2023, united by a shared commitment to telling this story responsibly and independently.

To learn more about the Northern Ethiopian war and its consequences
To donate directly to local NGOs in Tigray, Amhara and Afar who are struggling to support their community
To ignite conversations about a future Ethiopia at peace
To ignite conversations about the causes and consequences of war globally