Faya dayi

Ethiopian Mexican filmmaker Jessica Beshir’s hallucinatory first feature returns to the rural Ethiopian region where she grew up, a region that has seen the stimulant khat shift from being used for enlightenment by Sufi Muslims to becoming a mainstream escape from despair and hardship. Circling between youths with little hope and their elders, who are dependent on the khat dream state, the lyrical Faya dayi evokes the world of this addictive stimulant. With its stunning black-and-white visuals and elliptical structure, this film is a mesmerizing “tone poem” that “settles into a trance-like flow” (New York Times).