All About My Sisters
A searing portrait of Jin, filmed by her sister. Abandoned as a baby, Jin, now a young woman, faces multi-generational family trauma.
174'
USA
IFFR 2021
“Why did you come back?” a boy asks his slightly older friend. “For my mother”, the teenager replies. He reflects that he could be in Egypt now, or even further away – a costly, hazardous journey. Many Ethiopians take a different means of escape. They chew the stimulating leaves of the khat plant – now Ethiopia’s most lucrative agricultural product, having overtaken coffee.
For some ten years, Jessica Beshir regularly returned from New York to the part of Ethiopia where she was born. Shot in rich, poetic black and white, her debut feature-length film unfolds in layers of impression, eschewing traditional documentary techniques. Faya Dayi not only shows what they do, but manages to capture their experience of life, switching smoothly between the khat industry, intimate meetings and reflections, warmth and tragedy, spirituality, an ancient khat myth and stories of repression and resistance. And, above all, the dreams of youth.
IFFR 2021
Programme IFFR 2021
A special edition of Bright Future in which each programmer presents a fresh feature debut from the cutting edge of filmmaking.
Still: Phoenix
Read more about this programmeA searing portrait of Jin, filmed by her sister. Abandoned as a baby, Jin, now a young woman, faces multi-generational family trauma.
174'
USA
IFFR 2021
The sensation of being overwhelmed by nature shot in aesthetic black and white. With an undercurrent of spiritual connectedness.
79'
Netherlands
IFFR 2021
Poetic film essay on Syria – a country that for many now only exists in memories, or dreams.
83'
Canada
IFFR 2021