By Tsegaye Melak,
In the third act of the movie Gudifecha, a witch doctor (a cameo role played by the late Munaye Menberu) in which the main characters entrusted with a medical procedure enters the frame with a shadow shot of her washing her hands in a deserted house while the main characters waited in silence behind the curtains. It was a hauntingly crafted scene that captured the overall esthetics of the entire movie.
Set in the early 1990’s Addis Abeba Gudifecha a movie by the acclaimed director Tatek Tadesse explores topics/issues that our society considers as Taboos, sacred and off-limits. The movie cast includes veterans who made their name in the theater scene prior to this movie including, Fekadu T/Mariam, Belaynesh Amede, Fekerte Getahun, Alemu Gebreab, Sirak Tadesse and Haymanot Alemu. And up and coming artists Meseret Mebrate and Tesfu Berahne in the lead roles.
As mentioned above the movie explored mainly frowned upon issues such as incest, class and religion with absolute mastery and ease. The story revolves around Ato meshesha a patriarchal larger than life business man, his daughter Meron a 20 something university student at Addis Abeba University studying sociology and their adopted son Yosef who couldn’t get into university so is tasked with the day to day mundane chores around the house. As the story goes the family doctor develops a romantic feeling towards meron and inquired if the feeling was mutual but to the utter dismay of the doctor the feeling was not reciprocated. All the while Meron and Yosef were in hidden love affair, which afterwards she got pregnant and telling their parents was the only option forward
The story takes a massive turn when it’s revealed that Yosef was not actually their adopted son rather he was a child of an affair between Ato Meshesha and his wife’s sister whom we learn passed away with an unknown illness long ago. This incident makes the lovers siblings and cousins all at the same time. Ultimately abortion was the only option to spare some sort of sanity for all involved, unfortunately due to a preexisting medical condition the doctor refused to perform the medical procedure, which makes the traditional way the last resort.
This tragic drama went to an uncharted territory never seen in Ethiopian cinema before while exploring religion and morality. After the unfortunate demise of Meron a heartbroken and mentally unstable Yosef went to different religious ordeals like “tsebel” (common among orthodox Christian belivers) and “tselot” (common among protestant believers) to no avail. The thing that gave him a relative peace of mind and normalcy was multiple psychiatry sessions over an extended period of time. In a country as conservative as Ethiopia when it comes to religious values, it takes a certain level of courage to question/challenge this sacred issue.
Throughout the movie many bits and pieces were captured with a great deal of care and excellence, the loving bickering between the house maid and the door man while sharing hot coffee and gossip, the pacing of the “shemgelena” scene and the infuriated reaction of Ato Meshesha, afterwards the distraught Meshesha swallowing his pride asking the doctor to send the elders once more, and many others. As Gudifecha approaches its 20th anniversary it’s appropriate to celebrate and rave about this rare trailblazing family drama which paves way for many others afterwards.
