The Medallion

A single piece of jewellery holds the story of generations. Director Ruth and her mother go back to Ethiopia and explore her mother’s story as a survivor of the Red Terror genocide.

Ruth was barely a teenager when her mother passed down her Medallion, etched with a golden portrait of Nefertiti. A symbol of beauty and strength. Not only was this medallion an artefact, it was an emblem of her mother’s inconceivable plight; captured in middle school by the Derg communist military regime and raised in a prison camp for years, separated from her family. This story follows her early memories of the Derg Genocide, and how she first became in possession of the medallion upon her escape. This medallion symbolised her freedom, and was passed down to Ruth, for her to pass on to her children, to keep her family and country’s story alive.

This short film is part of the programme Shorts: Political Bodies.