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.

The world is on fire – and we feel strongly that there is no better way for us to throw water on the embers than by making this film. Because even the organisations best placed to respond such as the UN couldn’t – but we still can.

Besela will not take sides or place blame – nor compete for attention with the daily saturation of violence we see on social media. Rather, 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.

In November 2020, war broke out in Northern Ethiopia between the Federal Government and the Tigrayan regional armies. From July 2021, I was on the ground with the UN Refugee Agency working in Tigray – a remote northern province of Ethiopia, as part of the humanitarian response. Shortly before I arrived in Tigray, a complete siege was imposed on the region that would last nearly three years. I lived with the entrapped community as they lost access to electricity, internet, phone reception, fuel, medicine, and other basic necessities, including food. To this day I continue to be in touch with the community and our protagonists. Further, I will make this film with talented local Tigrayan filmmaker Ammanuel Hailemariam (cinematographer, producer), and award winning LA based documentary filmmaker Jonny Stern (co-director, director of photography, producer) who has his own special connection to Tigray.

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