| Director | Haile Gerima |
|---|
The film follows the story of the protagonist, Anbeber – who is a highly educated lab researcher who returns to his village in the Ethiopian countryside after a long absence, during which he lived in Germany and the capital city of Ethiopia. The story is not structured chronologically. It opens with a sequence that rapidly crosscuts between shots of a chanting priest who is shrouded in sheer muslin fabrics and a badly injured man being wheeled down hospital corridors on a stretcher. There is also an image of a child that appears multiple times during this opening sequence; it becomes clear later on in the film that this child is a visual hallucination. The priest is ordering someone to wake up and get up. Then there is a shot of a village with a vast landscape is shown. There is a priest playing a traditional harp at the edge of a cliff while watching the sunrise. An elder woman (later revealed to be Anberber's mother) is sitting by wood fire in a tiny mud hut wondering if the direction of the smoke indicates an imminent arrival.
It is 1990 and Anberber has returned to his poor village located far away from the metropolis of the country. He is greeted warmly by his mother and his brother. But he looks dazed and disoriented. A group of dejected young men in handcuffs look on as the family reunites. A very crowded and vibrant party is thrown to welcome Anberber. He is bombarded by questions from well-meaning party guests, but he simply stares back at them in confused shock. Soon the festivities are interrupted when a young man is violently drafted to fight on behalf of the national government. Other young men can be seen discretely sneaking out of the party before they are also spotted.
At sunrise, there is a mesmerizing view of lake Tana and a canoe floating near the horizon. Anberber wakes up screaming. Seemingly the whole village gathers outside his hut to stare at him. Anberber has on prosthetic leg but admits that he has no memory of losing his leg. After following his mother - who is visiting a church to give thanks for his return - Anberber walks into the church with shoes on (something that forbidden in the Ethiopian Orthodox tradition). Everyone is scandalized and shouting at him to take off his shoes. However, he is too unsettled by his hallucination of the child to even processes what they are saying to him. By now, people of the village are convinced that Anberber is possessed by evil spirits – probably as a result of having gone abroad, to a foreign country. Anberber follows his “vision” of the child to a statue erected by Mussolini's regime, during the Italian invasion. Anberber remembers his father who lost his life fighting the Italians. There is another sunrise and another beautiful view of lake Tana. Fog rises out of the ground as children run to school. The village teacher comes to school riding a bike. Class commences with the children being thought the national anthem.
A young man working on a farm is ambushed by soldiers and drafted. His mother is distraught. Anberber tries to console her. Anberber is unsettled by how things have changed in his village. He bitterly questions the point of educating the young children when all they have to look forward to is war and death. But the teacher counters Anberber's disillusionment by stating the power of education, especially in repressive times like this.
Anberber wakes up screaming once again after getting a series of flashbacks. He goes to the shore of lake Tana to stare at the horizon. He remarks how that horizon used to be the edge of his world as a child. But now, he has no recollection of where he had been in the intervening years. The people of the village bring him patients to treat because they heard he was a doctor. Yet he remains as quiet and as confused as the beginning of the film.
Anberber talks to his hallucination out loud in the presence of his mother. She becomes even more alarmed and worried about him. The family decides he needs to be taken to a holy water bath as part of an exorcism ritual. Anberber does not fight them but he tells the priest that the ritual will not work because his mind has been locked. The priest comments that even Western medicine will not be effective if the patient does not believe in its efficacy. As soon as the holy water is splashed on him, his first memory of his past life comes back to him.
It is 1970 and young Anberber is living in Germany as a graduate student. At a party, he meets Cassandra – a Black woman, who accuses Ethiopians of not wanting to date dark-skinned women. He disagrees and tells her he is interested in her. He goes on to declare himself a socialist, whose research work is motivated by his desire to alleviate the suffering of poor people in his country. Back in the present day, the liberation fighters warring with the government have come into the village with rifles. They are asking the people to tell them about their poor living conditions under the current government. The village people are terrified to say anything at all. As the flashback to early 1970s continues, Anberber participates in a political meeting of socialist Ethiopian students, who are all studying in Germany. In the present day, he simply stares at the liberation fighters in a daze when they ask him political questions. Later on, he compares the liberation fighters with communist government that was in power at the time; they both claim to be for the people but the people's lives have barely changed.
The village teacher takes Anberber to the cave where all the young men of the village are hiding in order to avoid conscription. On another day, soldiers are tipped off about a young man visiting from the cave. They chase and kill him in front of the villagers. Anberber tries to stop them but he does not succeed. To Anberber, the murdered young man now blends with his hallucination of the child.