By Alemayehu Seife-Selassie

The chance to go to college, no matter how far away from home, is seen as a success for many Ethiopian families. But getting to college does not guarantee success in life; in fact it might just do quite the opposite, at least that is what Daniel Worku’s new film “Self Protrait” shows. This filmmaker, known for his previous Chebelew I and Chebelew II feature films, has been chosen as one of the few Africans to have his short film “Hope” premiered in China at the International Short Films Festival a couple of months back.

Daniel's truly touching educational drama, which premiered last Saturday at Alem Cinema Hall, captured the imagination of fans; parents burst into tears, higher learning administrators looked shocked and other fans were simply left breathless. Rape, adultery, and getting boozed up are only some of the shocking scenes depicted in the film. In a conservative country like Ethiopia, seeing a display of such behaviors by highly respected college students is unbelievable. But to viewer’s surprise Daniel says the film is based on a true story. “I was stunned when I saw how college students were behaving in Bahir Dar three years ago." Explaining what motivated him to make the film he says, “At the nightclubs it was open sex for college students. Then I started asking people to take me to where the students were hanging out. And to my surprise the response I got was, 'You want to speak to the sluts'. It was shocking to hear university students being described so degradingly."

The fact that the students had multiple sexual partners and they were sleeping around out in the open was something that the director did not expect to find. He was saddened by their limitless exposure to HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancy and unnecessary dismissal from college. The film shows many college girls getting wasted and spending nights outside their campus exposing themselves to rape. It even depicts the teachers as not being clean from it all where some of them sleep with their students for grade.

The filmmaker states that what promoted him to make the movie was the desire to put a stop to it all. “I know they are young and they want to explore life. But there is a limit to how much they should be willing to go,” he said. “I think we should be able to save at least some of them. Even the prostitutes stay with one man when they are out on business. But the students were going with different persons in the same club.”

Daniel believes that the parents should know what their children are up to and that the public should stop providing them with the means to waste their opportunities. “I think the government can have a stricter rule, and add more activities in higher learning institutions. NGOs can also help the deprived students to build up their self-esteem.”

According to Daniel, the film is based on unpublished researches conducted in universities, which indicate that there are a lot of teachers that have died from HIV/AIDS brought about by such behaviors and that many students have ended up being prostitutes. There are close to a hundred students that drop out because of pregnancy. “It is easier to teach them about the consequences. When they are in small cities, there are several rich businessmen on the prowl for the young students for they think that it is safer to go out with college girls.”

The small cities that accommodate the seemy behaviors of the students have proven to be rich material for the film. The filmmaker was guided to the secret hideouts of the students.

Except for comments that the film is exaggerated, it is been received well by the majority of the audience. As to that comment, the director said, “We have tried to water down some of the shocking scenes. And when we screen in to students at Jimma University it was watched with total silence.”

Having made a number of short films and features, Daniel is not new to making films. His docu-drama film Illusion and Reality earned him a lot of respect a few months back. As in the case of his previous jaw dropper, Self Portrait did not come at ease. Daniel is the film's producer, director and scriptwriter along with the co-writer Danait Tsegaye.
Self Portrait shows an instance where a college girl drinking beyond her limit finds herself in a motel with someone whom she does not even know. The director says that such incidents were common in the students’ lives. The result of such behavior was regret, which made it easy for the filmmaker to get the stories from the student. “The students are open. They have been raped, they hated themselves, it was not difficult to get their stories.”

The difficult challenge that the maker faced was raising the fund for the film. After a struggle to put up a team of actors to play the roles of the students and teachers, he found out that the budget was not enough to get them going. “There are limits to the sacrifice the actors will pay for you. So we had to use students from the University and Music Mayday. Some of the students were even victims of such a life.” Convincing the students to play their lives took serious convincing on the director's part. And the task of casting was done three times.

Irish Aid, CRDA, and ARC, among others, helped finance the film. Daniel states that if it was not for the support of these organizations the film would not have materialized. “There were times when we thought that we could not do it and were about to quit. But the support of these organizations has been instrumental in making it happen.” It took Daniel three years to make the movie.

There are believed to be scores of students who are being harassed in schools, but there is very little effort done to prevent it. And among the comments that the filmmaker received one is to start working on raising awareness in high schools. “We want to take it to the colleges and premier it free of charge and we want to promote the message.”

Daniel Worku is an author and filmmaker. He plays an active part in the Ethiopia Should Read Project.

Source: EthiopianReporter