Red Leaves

Israel’s vibrant Jewish Ethiopian community is finally given screen time in Bazi Gete’s Red Leaves, which captures the uncertainty and unmooring of an elderly Ethiopian immigrant in Israel. After the death of his wife, the obstinate Meseganio Tadela finds himself bouncing from one of his children’s homes to another, unable to embrace—or fully understand—their more modern, “un-Ethiopian” ways. Proudly holding onto his roots, he soon must face up to a new generation—and an old society—that has no room for him. Inspired by King Lear, Red Leaves is a powerful vision of a community long ignored in Israeli cinema.