"Asalif is the perfect person ... he lives literally on the rift of old and new," Scarpelli told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. But the film is concerned with what gets lost along the way, from storytelling to family structures, steam-rolled by modernity, she said. Unrest spread in Ethiopia in 2015 and 2016, sparked initially by an urban development plan for the capital. "Everybody living on either side is connected to each other, they can't not be, and that's the way that the world is," said Scarpelli. The film ends with Asalif, the metaphorical lion, besting the hyenas, and his future remains promising, said Scarpelli.

Source: Ethiopian News March 20, 2019 05:03 UTC