Dir. Zeresenay Mehari

Ethiopia/2014/99mins/Amharic with English subtitles/12

From executive producer Angelina Jolie Pitt comes the award-winning drama DIFRET, based on the inspirational true story of a young Ethiopian girl and a tenacious lawyer embroiled in a life-or-death clash between cultural traditions and their country’s advancement of equal rights. When 14-year-old Hirut is abducted in her rural village’s tradition of kidnapping women for marriage, she fights back, accidentally killing her captor and intended husband. Local law demands a death sentence for Hirut, but Meaza, a tough and passionate lawyer from a women’s legal aide practice, steps in to fight for her. With both Hirut’s life and the future of the practice at stake the two women must make their case for self-defense against one of Ethiopia’s oldest and most deeply-rooted traditions. DIFRET paints a portrait of a country in a time of great transformation and the brave individuals ready to help shape it.

“Difret focuses on the impasse between modernity and tradition, between cosmopolitan and provincial lifestyles” – Washington Post

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