Faya Dayi (DVD)

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 Ethiopias Oromo community, a place where one commoditykhat, a euphoria-inducing plant once prized for its supposedly mystical propertiesholds 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 regions political strife. The directors exquisite monochrome cinematographyeach frame a masterpiece sculpted from light and shadowand the films time-bending, elliptical editing create a ravishing sensory experience that hovers between consciousness and dreaming.