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Flag of EthiopiaMovies: Best Movies from Ethiopia

Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east and southeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia covers a land area of 1,112,000 square kilometres (472,000 sq. miles). As of 2023, it is home to around 128 million inhabitants, making it the 13th-most populous country in the world, the 2nd-most populous in Africa after Nigeria, and the most populated landlocked country on Earth. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates. Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and set out for the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithic period. Southwestern Ethiopia has been proposed as a possible homeland of the Afroasiatic language family. Ethiopia is Africa's oldest independent country and one of the oldest in the world with over 3000 years of history. Apart from a five-year occupation by Mussolini's Italy, Ethiopia has never been colonised. In 980 BC, the Kingdom of D'mt extended its realm over Eritrea and the nor... ()
Languages used in Ethiopia: English | Amharic | Somali | Tigrinya | Oromo | Afar


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75 movies found (page 1/3):

Samsara(2011)

FSK: 0+ years
| 1h 42min | Documentary
4.0/5 (with 259 votes)

Filmed over nearly five years in twenty-five countries on five continents, and shot on seventy-millimetre film, Samsara transports us to the varied worlds of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes, and natural wonders.

Directed by Ron Fricke - With Neelesha Barthel

Der weisse Äthiopier(2015)

1h 51min | TV Movie, Drama
3.6/5 (with 4 votes)

In Ethiopia, Frank Michalka has found a new home and left his criminal past behind. But happiness does not last long and the former offender must go back to Germany. Once there, he immediately falls back into old patterns and robbed a bank.

Lamb(2015)

1h 34min | Drama
3.5/5 (with 12 votes)

When an Ethiopian boy moves in with distant relatives he takes his pet sheep with him but the upcoming holidays spell danger for his beloved friend.

Directed by Yared Zeleke

Difret(2014)

FSK: 12+ years
| 1h 36min | Drama
3.1/5 (with 26 votes)

Three hours outside of Addis Ababa, a bright 14-year-old girl is on her way home from school when men on horses swoop in and kidnap her. The brave Hirut grabs a rifle and tries to escape, but ends up shooting her would-be husband. In her village the practice of abduction into marriage is common and one of Ethiopia’s oldest traditions. Meaza Ashenafi, an empowered and tenacious young lawyer, arrives from the city to represent Hirut and argue that she acted in self defense. Meaza boldly embarks on a collision course between enforcing civil authority and abiding by customary law, risking the ongoing work of her women’s legal aid practice to save Hirut’s life.

Luciano Serra, Pilot(1938)

1h 42min | War, Drama
2.5/5 (with 5 votes)

Successful WWI pilot Luciano Serra has problems adjusting to an ordinary life in peace, so he leaves his family and becomes a pilot in America. In the 30s, his son in Italy wants also to become a pilot, and Luciano accepts an offer of a double dealing agent for a flight from Rio to Rome, but his plane crashes in the Atlantic. For the world Luciano Serra is missing, but he has entered the Italian army under a new name to fight in Ethiopia. The train in which his unit travels is attacked by Ethiopian soldiers, his son flying a reconasaince mission is shot down and wounded by the same attacking enemies. Will Luciano be able to fly the plane back, to get close air support for the outnumbered Italian troups?

Sankofa(1993)

2h 4min | Drama
3.0/5 (with 6 votes)

On a photo shoot in Ghana, an American model slips back in time, becomes enslaved on a plantation and bears witness to the agony of her ancestral past.

Directed by Haile Gerima - With Afemo Omilami

Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway(2019)

2.8/5 (with 9 votes)

CIA agents Palmer and Gagano are tasked with the perilous mission of destroying “The Soviet Union!" As they enter the system using a VR simulation, their mission quickly turns into a delirious trap, far more complex than expected, as the fabric of reality starts unraveling around them. A cornucopia of stylistic influences, virtuosic cinematic techniques, and set design (ranging from stop-motion animation to stylized live-action), Llanso’s latest blends inter-dimensional intrigue, spy-fi, kung-fu, and Philip K. Dick-esque mind-melting weirdness to achieve truly unclassifiable results.

Directed by Miguel Llansó

Venice 70: Future Reloaded(2013)

2h | Drama
2.6/5 (with 6 votes)

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

Crumbs(2015)

3.0/5 (with 11 votes)

Dormant for decades, a mothership hovering over post-apocalyptic Ethiopia awakens. Resolved to board the craft, a collector of late 20th century pop memorabilia embarks on a surreal journey to uncover its secrets.

Directed by Miguel Llansó

The Athlete(2009)

1h 32min | Drama, History
3.1/5 (with 4 votes)

Running the streets of Rome in 1960, an unknown, barefooted Ethiopian man stunned the world by winning Olympic gold in the marathon. Overnight, Abebe Bikila became a sports legend. A hero in his own country and to the continent, Bikila was the first African to win a gold medal, and four years later in Tokyo would become the first person in history to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in the marathon.

Directed by Davey Frankel, Rasselas Lakew - With Ruta Gedmintas, Dag Malmberg

Teza(2008)

2h 20min | Drama
3.8/5 (with 9 votes)

The Ethiopian intellectual Anberber returns to his native country during the repressive totalitarian regime of Haile Mariam Mengistu and the recognition of his own displacement and powerlessness at the dissolution of his people's humanity and social values. After several years spent studying medicine in Germany, he finds the country of his youth replaced by turmoil. His dream of using his craft to improve the health of Ethiopians is squashed by a military junta that uses scientists for its own political ends. Seeking the comfort of his countryside home, Anberber finds no refuge from violence. The solace that the memories of his youth provide is quickly replaced by the competing forces of military and rebelling factions. Anberber needs to decide whether he wants to bear the strain or piece together a life from the fragments that lie around him.

Directed by Haile Gerima

Faya Dayi(2021)

3.9/5 (with 6 votes)

A spiritual journey into the highlands of Harar, immersed in the rituals of khat, a leaf Sufi Muslims chewed for centuries for religious meditations – and Ethiopia’s most lucrative cash crop today. A tapestry of intimate stories offers a window into the dreams of youth under a repressive regime.

Directed by Jessica Beshir
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Sacred(2016)

1h 27min | Documentary
3.3/5 (with 2 votes)

Sacred explores cultural and religious ritual as it relates to life’s cycles: birth, adolescence, marriage, aging and other key passages of life.

Shattering Shadow(2014)

1h 30min

The horrors of war cast young fisherman Adisu adrift in vast Ethiopia. Forty years later, he is a taxi driver in a Northern European city, dreaming every night of his lost love. Surprising debut is dreamlike yet authentic, with no hint of false sentimentality.

Running Against the Wind(2023)

FSK: 12+ years
| 1h 52min | Drama

The film follows the fate of two boys, one of whom hopes to become an Olympic runner and the other a photographer.

Directed by Jan Philipp Weyl

One Day on Earth(2012)

1h 44min | Documentary
3.8/5 (with 2 votes)

Recording a 24-hour period throughout every country in the world, we explore a greater diversity of perspectives than ever seen before on screen. We follow characters and events that evolve throughout the day, interspersed with expansive global montages that explore the progression of life from birth, to death, to birth again. In the end, despite unprecedented challenges and tragedies throughout the world, we are reminded that every day we are alive there is hope and a choice to see a better future together. Founded in 2008, it set out to explore our planet's identity and challenges in an attempt to answer the question: Who are we?

Los dioses de agua(2014)

1h 50min | Drama, Adventure

Stimulated by the studies of a French ethnologist, his Argentine colleague, Hermes, travels through his country, Angola and Ethiopia to determine with the help of the young Angolan Oko, Ayelen and the Egyptologist Esteban if humanity is the creation of extraterrestrial amphibian beings.

Directed by Pablo César

Roaring Abyss(2016)

1h 27min | Documentary
3.5/5 (with 2 votes)

A sound journey accros the mountains, deserts and forests of Ethiopia and its cultural universe. Roaring Abyss will take you through an inedit collection of music recordings of unvaluable importance for the transmission and preservation of the African heritage.

Cœurs d'athlètes(2003)

4.5/5 (with 1 vote)

- No description / details available yet. -

Directed by Patrick Montel, Régis Wargnier

Omo Child: The River and the Bush(2015)

1h 29min | Documentary, Drama
4.1/5 (with 3 votes)

For many generations people in the Omo Valley (tribal southwest Ethiopia) believed some children are cursed and that these 'cursed' children bring disease, drought and death to the tribe. The curse is called 'mingi' and mingi children are killed. Lale Labuko, a young educated man from the Kara tribe was 15 years old when he saw a child in his village killed and also learned that he had 2 older sisters he never knew who had been killed. He decided one day he would stop this horrific practice. Filmed over a five year period we follow Lale's journey along with the people of his tribe as they attempt to change an ancient practice.

Directed by John Rowe - With Lale Labuko

If Only I Were That Warrior(2015)

1h 12min | Documentary
3.3/5 (with 1 vote)

If Only I Were That Warrior is a feature documentary film focusing on the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1935. Following the recent construction of a monument dedicated to Fascist general Rodolfo Graziani, the film addresses the unpunished war crimes he and others committed in the name of Mussolini’s imperial ambitions. The stories of three characters, filmed in present day Ethiopia, Italy and the United States, take the audience on a journey through the living memories and the tangible remains of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia — a journey that crosses generations and continents to today, where this often overlooked legacy still ties the fates of two nations and their people.

Hairat(2017)

3.4/5 (with 3 votes)

For over 35 years Yussuf Mume Saleh journeys at night to the outskirts of the walled city of Harar to bond with his beloved hyenas.

Anbessa(2019)

1h 25min | Documentary, Drama
3.0/5 (with 4 votes)

Asalif and his mother defy Ethiopia’s omnipresent modern housing development culture, by continuing to live a life characterised by proximity to nature and rootedness in community. The boy counters the ruptures in his accustomed surroundings and the threat posed by the hyena that haunts his neighbourhood by reinventing himself as a hero: as Anbessa, the lion.

Directed by Mo Scarpelli

Enchained(2020)

In this lush historical drama set in 1916 Ethiopia, Gobeze is a timid, peace-loving literature student who has dedicated his life to studying Sem Ina Werq — riddles with dual meaning. After spending years searching for his first love, Aleme, who was abducted seven years earlier, he finally finds her married to Gonite, a wealthy judge and landlord. When Gonite catches the two reunited lovers, a fight ensues. Following tradition, the feuding men are bound together, and, side by side, must make the long journey to stand trial in the royal court.

Fig Tree(2018)

1h 33min | Drama
3.3/5 (with 1 vote)

14 year old Jewish Mina, is trying to navigate between a surreal routine dictated by the civil war in Ethiopia and her last days of youth with her Christian boyfriend Eli. When she discovers that her family is planning to immigrate to Israel and escape the war, she weaves an alternate plan in order to save Eli. But in times of war, plans tend to go wrong. Marsha's coming of age film debut film is based on her childhood memories of a civil-war-torn Ethiopia.

Directed by Alamork Davidian

Harvest: 3,000 Years(1975)

2h 30min | Drama
3.3/5 (with 5 votes)

In this meditative film the everyday lives of poor Ethiopian peasants are shown using documentary as well as storytelling techniques, with its drama arising out of the timeless yet persistent issues of their lives.

Directed by Haile Gerima

Mud Road(2019)

10min | Documentary

In South Ethiopia, an ambulance driver has to bring a young lady to the hospital for delivery, but the nearest one is 300 km far from the village. It’s a long journey along a road full of mud.

Price of Love(2015)

1h 39min | Drama, Romance / Love
2.5/5 (with 1 vote)

A young Addis Ababa taxi driver gets caught up in the dark side of love, causing his taxi to be stolen. He finds himself stuck in a relationship with a prostitute, making him confront his past and discover what is the price of love.

Directed by Hermon Hailay

A Fool God(2019)

18min

When young Mesi steps in for her squeamish brother to perform a traditional — male-only — ritual, she faces blame for the negative outcome. Instead, she defiantly questions the wisdom of her elders’ beliefs.

Ayrak(2015)

2h 14min | Drama

- No description / details available yet. -

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