Harpur Cinema Presents: Faya Dayi

 Jessica Beshir, Ethiopia, 2021, 120 min

 Friday, April 1 and Sunday, April 3: Lecture Hall 6, 7:30 PM. Doors open at 7:00 pm. $4 single    Admission.

Face masks are required of all attendees, regardless of vaccination status, in accordance with  University public health policies. All University public health policies will be enforced

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 is 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 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.