Faya Dayi The Criterion Collection Blu-ray

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 Ethiopia’s Oromo community, a place where one commodity—khat, a euphoria-inducing plant once prized for its supposedly mystical properties—holds 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 region’s political strife. The director’s exquisite monochrome cinematography—each frame a masterpiece sculpted from light and shadow—and the film’s time-bending, elliptical editing create a ravishing sensory experience that hovers between consciousness and dreaming.

CONDITION: NEW

MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
Director ‏ : ‎ Beshir, Jessica
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Blu-ray, Subtitled
Release date ‏ : ‎ August 30, 2022
Actors ‏ : ‎ Beshir, Jessica
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English
Studio ‏ : ‎ The Criterion Collection
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1