Kemis Yelebesku’let: The Story that Got Away

I love movies. I love movies that leave me thinking about the whole story. I love movies that have lively characters that will, in the end, seem like they are my new friends who I care about the most. Whatever the genre, I love movies that will go straight to my heart and wander there for some while. Zeritu Kebede is one of my favorite writers. I am a big fan of the timeless lyrics of her first album and couple of her singles. She knows how to tell a story through her music and that is my kind of song. So when I first heard about her new movie, Kemis Yelebesku’let, my exact words were “I can’t wait until it is released! I believe in Zeritu, she won’t let us down with a story. I bet it will be a leg breaking one!” And then came the time that the movie came out. Without any exaggeration, as much as I love and respect Zeritu’s talent, I left the cinema hall shaking my head and tangled with many woulda, coulda, shoulda-s.
The choices a woman, who is in a relationship but winds up pregnant from her best friend, makes, depicts a realistic portrayal of life we do not normally see in Amharic movies. The idea was brilliant; it was quite exceptional and no cliché. But sadly, at least from my point of view, it could have been better. There were too many little details that I thought were totally unnecessary and a lot of short scenes with quite confusing transitions. It seemed like the whole script was completed with excitement. It looked like a lot of effort has been made to make the story as good as possible but unfortunately, at least from what I saw something slipped away somewhere down the line…a story that could have been unique and amazingly brilliant left me feeling unfulfilled with characters that were not strong and an ending that was vague.
I am still looking forward to Zeritu’s next story, which I do hope will meet my expectations because she has amazing talent.

2nd Year • February 2014 • No 12