December

Made in Ethiopia

Xinyan Yu & Max Duncan

In Dukem, a city located in the heart of Ethiopia, there is a huge industrial park built by Chinese investors since 2008. Motto, general manager of the park, is a woman of distinction, yet she too must pull out all the stops to make the next, huge expansion a reality. That expansion will involve 30,000 jobs, but it will also leave the park adjacent to a dusty farming town, where people’s lives are still defined by the changing of the seasons. What are the implications of all this?

Filmmakers Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan followed this whole process for four years, resulting in this nuanced film about the many contradictions involved: between the Chinese and the Ethiopians, between urban and rural, between man and woman and, above all, between profit-driven entrepreneuralism and land-rooted tradition. Motto gives her take on things, as do factory worker Beti and farmer Workinesh.

Credits

Director
Xinyan Yu & Max Duncan
Type
Documentary
Country
Canada, Ethiopia, USA, UK, Denmark
Year
2024
Duration
91 minutes
Spoken Language
Chinese, Amharic, English, Oromo
Subtitles
English
*Theatres with subtitles and an in-depth programme in English.
~ VERA Zienema is screening a different film this month: L'Histoire de Souleymane (the On Tour film of December 2024).

Note: The date and start time of a screening may change. Please check the website of the respective movie theatre for the most up-to-date information.

Theatres, dates and timeslots

Amersfoort
Mon 13 Jan at 20:15 in De Lieve Vrouw
Amsterdam
Wed 22 Jan at 19:15 in Kriterion*
Amsterdam
Thu 30 Jan at 19:00 in Rialto VU*
Apeldoorn
Tue 14 Jan at 20:00 in Gigant
Arnhem
Wed 22 Jan at 19:00 in Focus Filmtheater
Breda
Sun 26 Jan at 16:00 in Filmhuis Breda
Delft
Thu 16 Jan in Filmhuis Lumen*
Den Haag
Sun 12 Jan at 15:00 in Filmhuis Den Haag*
Deventer
Mon 27 Jan at 20:00 in MIMIK
Gouda
Wed 22 Jan at 20:00 in Filmhuis Gouda
Groningen
Mon 13 Jan at 20:30 in VERA Zienema*~
Hilversum
Tue 14 Jan at 19:00 in Filmtheater Hilversum
Leiden
Mon 13 Jan at 19:00 in Kijkhuis*
Middelburg
Tue 21 Jan at 20:00 in Cinema Middelburg*
Schiedam
Tue 14 Jan at 20:00 in Wenneker Cinema
Utrecht
Mon 13 Jan at 19:00 in Louis Hartlooper Complex*
Wageningen
Tue 21 Jan at 20:00 in Movie W*