Forundje - White. Drifting Ethiopia

This unusual travel documentary dispenses with the interviews, commentary and story typical of most documentary films. Filmed from the subjective point of view of a foreign traveler in a strange land, it takes you from the city off the well-trodden tourist routes, deeper and deeper into a mystical and ancient culture. Finally, despair is converted into awe and wonder.

This essayistic travel documentary shows the point of view of a foreigner - »forungje« - in a strange land; it takes you from the city off the well-trodden tourist routes, deep into the mystical and ancient culture of Ethiopia. Finally, despair is converted into awe and wonder. Children are at focus. Their unfiltered attention and demands to the other – the foreigner – is challenging, surprising, insightful. The film alters into a stage, actors become observers and observers actors at a wold stage of questioning faces, waving and shouting people. Oneself feels strangest. In an unscripted stream of encounters, this visual essay examines the intersection of movement and place. Small stories of daily contact point to the subjective, unlike traditional documentaries. Begging, shouts, invitations – the traveller appears only rarely, and at the edge of the frame. The result compels one into self-reflection. ›Whiteness‹ becomes the leading theme.