Fig Tree

Aalam-Warqe Davidian’s semi-autobiographical first feature is a potent glimpse of adolescence amid civil war. 16 year old Jewish Mina, is trying to navigate between a surreal routine dictated by the civil war in Ethiopia and her last days of youth with her Christian boyfriend Eli. When she discovers that her family is planning to immigrate to Israel and escape the war, she weaves an alternate plan in order to save Eli, who is just the right age to be recruited by the local militias.

On May 25th 1991, I had to unexpectedly leave my life in Ethiopia. I was 10 years old, only a few days before Mengistu Haile Mariam was overthrown, and despite the rumours about an impending war, my incognizant last days in Ethiopia passed quite normally…. I want to tell the stories of the people that surround my memories and give a face on the lives of immigrants. While they might look happy and revived when they come to a new country, as if they achieved a goal, the truth is that for many of us, as for the Fig Tree’s heroine, immigration is not just a new beginning but also the end of an era and a personal tragedy.

Director Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian