Faya dayi / directed, filmed, written and produced by Jessica Beshir ; a Merkhana Films production ; in association with XTR, Neon Heart Productions, Flies Collective.
Edition:
Director-approved DVD special edition.
Publisher:
The Criterion Collection,
Copyright Date:
2022
Description:
1 videodisc (118 min.) : sound, black & white/color ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 folded sheet (12 pages : black and white illustrations ; 19 cm)
Originally released as a motion picture in 2021. Wide screen (1.78:1). Accompaned by folded sheet (12 pages) containing an essay by film scholar Yasmin Price. Special features: New selected-scene commentary featuring Beshir and poet Ladan Osman; Three short films by Beshir: He who dances on wood (2016), Heroin (2017), and Hairat (2017), featuring an introduction by Beshir; trailer; plus: an essay by film scholar Yasmin Price.
Summary:
A sublime work of personal vision, the debut feature by the Mexican Ethiopian filmmaker Jessica Beshir is a hypnotic documentary immersion in the world of Ethiopia's Oromo and Harari communities, places where one commodity khat, a euphoria-inducing plant once prized for its supposedly mystical properties holds sway over the rituals and rhythms of everyday life. As if under the influence of the drug itself, Faya Dayi unfurls as intoxicating, trance state cinema, capturing intimate moments in the existence of everyone from the harvesters of the crop to people lost in its narcotic haze to a desperate but determined younger generation searching for an escape from the region's political strife. The director's exquisite monochrome cinematography each frame a masterpiece sculpted from light and shadow and the film's time-bending, elliptical editing create a ravishing sensory experience that hovers between consciousness and dreaming.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.