It’s 1989, and the Ethiopian Civil War has been taking place for all of Mina’s 16 years. Her family plans to leave Addis Ababa for Israel, but Mina can’t fathom leaving behind the person she loves most: Eli, her Christian boyfriend, who lives in the woods to evade being conscripted to the army. Mina hatches a scheme to save him, but everyone and everything seems set against her. Based on the filmmaker’s memories of growing up in war-torn Ethiopia, Fig Tree is an focused view of the impact of civil war on the lives of ordinary people.
11/13 screening followed by a conversation with Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.