Politics Do Not a Banquet Make (1998)

1998. 52 minutes. Ethiopia. Maarten Schmidt and Thomas Doebele. Documentary

In Tigray, in northern Ethiopia, there are hardly any families who have not been affected by death, missing relatives, or injuries. The survivors of the civil war, which lasted for years, and the famine, are working under extremely primitive conditions to construct a huge dam.

Far away in the capital, Addis Ababa, democracy is getting off to a hesitant start after the feudalistic rule of Emperor Haile Selassie and the bloody dictatorship of army leader Mengistu. Maarten Schmidt and Thomas Doebele filmed Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, a former minister under Emperor Haile Selassie, and a journalist with the independent newspaper, The Reporter. They each tell their own story of the past, present and future of Ethiopia.