Film Review: Faya Dayi

Director: Jessica Beshir
Starring: Biniam Yonas, Salih Sigirci, Kawa Sherif
Running time: 120 minutes

Opening on a wide shot of the rural Ethiopian landscape encapsulated by the pitch black night sky with the silhouette of a child running towards the screen, Faya Dayi begins with such a strong visual mood that never goes away across its two hour run time. It is the debut feature by Jessica Beshir, a documentary that focuses on the highlands of Harar and more specifically on its Sufi Muslim population. Harar’s inhabitants used to grow coffee and various other crops but due to changes in the climate and global economy their biggest, and potentially only, harvesting crop is Khat. It is a leaf that when chewed causes excitement and euphoria. This drug is what builds most of the economy in the local region as it is sold to locals but also exported to other parts of the country.

It is instantly obvious that Faya Dayi is unlike most documentaries – at least contemporary ones. There is a complete lack of talking heads, interviews or narration that explains directly who the people on screen are and exactly what it is they are doing. Instead Beshir decides to opt for a more lyrical approach, filming the Harar people living out their day to day lives showing us a glimpse into their reality. However, there is a brilliant use of voice over and often conversations, poetry and stories are layed out over the top of beautiful images of nature and people. This combination invokes a similar feeling to that of the films by Terrence Malick (i.e. Days of Heaven and The Tree of Life) however, the film remains completely non-fictional in its storytelling. 

Shot in absolutely stunning monochrome, Beshir captures both the vibrance and sadness of the communities that exist in the city of Harar. She captures the communal nature of the city dwellers as they eat food, pray, harvest crops and load trucks as a collective. Lots of focus is given to the farming of the Khat and some brilliant editing creates long stretches of impressionistic shots that capture the process of labour incredibly effectively, feeling somewhat reminiscent of a 1920s Soviet Union documentary such as Dziga Vertov. What is clear is that the economy of the city relies on the Khat crop but it is also a source of addiction for many of the people. It is used to escape the harsh reality of existence under a repressive regime and helps to bear the burden of work and familial duties.

Faya Dayi intertwines a myriad of different socio-political themes through its run time and each of them come from the visual images or through the natural dialogues spoken between the people we see. One is immigration – one of the most recurring characters is a man who has recently come back to Ethiopia to care for his sick mother, but wants to leave again and is in constant conflict with the dichotomy between wanting to search for a better life and caring for the home he is from. 

Another is the social malaise found in the youth of Harar who suffer under the authoritarian regime that restricts their social and political freedoms. One of the central teenagers we see in the documentary wants to leave but struggles to gain enough money to do so; his mother has passed away recently and he has had to take up a job harvesting khat to provide for his family. These stories are told with such intimacy and are shown in such an earnest way that you can tell Beshir deeply cares about the film and the subjects. It elevates the material so much more when it doesn't feel clunky or awkward.

While it doesn’t follow the traditional tropes of a documentary, and feels more akin to an arthouse film, there is an enormous amount of rich detail and information to take in from Faya Dayi. It is great to see a modern day filmmaker who understands cinema as a spiritual medium as well as just a narrative one, and it is hard to believe this is Beshir’s first feature film. It’s without a doubt one of the most beautiful looking films released this year, with every single composition making full use of the frame and some fantastic looking night time shots. Faya Dayi understands that sometimes one of the most powerful and liberating acts of cinema is to simply show the lives of regular, working people in their triumphs and in their struggles.

Did you know? The title of the film means “giving birth to health”, which is a mantra chanted by farmers in Harar during harvest.

Faya Dayi is available on Mubi from Wednesday 10th August