Dear Shiloh Community,
October is drawing to an end, and therewith concludes UK Domestic Violence Awareness month. We have been invited by Project Manager Dr Natalia Paszkiewicz to share with you a docudrama called Tidar (Marriage), now available on the new YouTube channel of Project dldl/ድልድል (Building Bridges of Faith Against Domestic Violence).
From the Project Team: “The aim of the film is to raise awareness about the complex role that religion can have in situations of domestic violence in the Ethiopian Orthodox community, influencing both victim and perpetrator rationalisations and behaviour. We would be grateful if you could share it with your colleagues and students.”
The film is about 40 minutes long and has English subtitles: Tidar – Marriage – Full movie with English subtitles (youtube.com) The film is also available with Tigrigna and Afaan Oromoo subtitles on the same channel.
Content Warning! Please be advised that the film includes scenes of domestic violence at the beginning and ending.
Tidar is one of several educational films produced by the project, which is funded by UK Research and Innovation . The film is based on real people’s stories and testimonies, which were collected during research in Ethiopia. It tells the story of Genet, who is experiencing domestic violence. It shows how Genet’s community responds to her predicament and how personal faith, religious mediation and theological teaching influence how she thinks through her situation.
The film was written and led by Dr Romina Istratii, directed by Yidnekachew Shumete of Kurat Pictures and produced by Hermon Hailay and Max Conil of Exile Pictures. It has been re-enacted by Amharic-speaking actors in Ethiopia, with subtitles in Tigrigna, Afaan Oromoo and English produced with the help of two exceptional translators, Dr Haile Gezae, and Mesfin Wodajo. The film was screened for the first time in 2023 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and again in London and Cambridge, UK in 2024.
Dr Romina Istratii, Principal Investigator of Project dldl/ድልድል and writer of the film, has shared the below comments on the occasion of the film’s release:
I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the director and co-producers, Yidne, Max and Hermon, for their exceptional passion and commitment to bringing this film to fruition. The extended team, Kedest and Gedam, Haile and Mesfin, but also the all-Ethiopian crew on the ground – including the amazing actors – made this film possible. Without each and every person contributing to its production, including the communities supporting us, this film would not exist.
Similarly, the film would not be as it is without the contribution and support of numerous theological experts and translators in Ethiopia who directly or indirectly informed our theological approach of the issue, including Henok Hailu, Selam Reta, Kesis Aklil Damtew and many collaborators affiliated with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
For those less familiar with the film, Tidar is based on stories and testimonies of real people in Ethiopia collected through years’ community-based research with women and men, clergy, monks and church teachers on the ground. The film does not seek to represent the teachings of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and theological experts were consulted in the making of the film where theological references are made. The film also does not seek to suggest how clergy should respond to domestic violence victims but rather depicts how different members of the clergy currently respond based on the findings of the research. The aim of the film is to problematise these responses, positive or negative, and to start a conversation within the Church and beyond.
The film is released to be used for educational purposes by any individual or organisations working on raising awareness about and responding to domestic violence in faith communities. While Genet’s story takes place in an Orthodox Christian community in Ethiopia, the challenges she faces as she seeks a solution to her situation are cross-cultural and can inform conversations and approaches elsewhere. The film should be understood as an attempt to present the complexity of the problem with all its nuances and not to essentialise the problem to Ethiopia only. So please use it with the appropriate context.
Viewers who are curious about the motivations and approach taken to produce the film, may want to watch the short video ‘Making of Tidar,’ also created by the project with the assistance of Kurat Pictures in Ethiopia and Chouette Films in the UK: Making of Tidar (youtube.com)
The Project Team hopes that the film will prove educational and insightful and that it does justice to the topic. They welcome all feedback!
A huge congratulations to everyone from Team Shiloh!