Teza, written and directed by Haile Gerima, tells the story of an Ethiopian expatriate (Anberber) who witnesses and participates in the two major power transitions of Ethiopia in the last forty years. In the first power transition, the toppling of King Haile Selassie by the Derg Forces in 1974, Anberber and his best friend Tesfaye, both trained scientists, return to Ethiopia from Germany to join the revolutionary forces and "eradicate bacteria and death." The passion of the scientists to help their country is beyond disrepute- Tesfaye even abandons his wife and child in Germany. But not long after settling in Ethiopia, the revolutionary spirit sours for both Anberber and Tesfaye and climaxes with Tesfaye getting hacked to pieces by Derg cronies and Anberber defecting to East Germany. Thereafter, Anberber crosses the border to West Germany, where he is assaulted and thrown of a building by skinheads. Flash forward to 1990, another power transition in Ethiopia, and a one-legged Anberber returns to his family in a small village in Ethiopia. There, he falls in love and bears a child with a disgraced woman living under his mother's roof. The film ends on an optimistic note as Anberber, with the help of his mother and lover, recovers from acute amnesia and a scarred psyche and becomes a productive member of society as a teacher to the local school children.
Clearly, as a story, Teza has plenty of material to become a compelling film. However, under the heavy-handed direction of Haile Gerima, Teza becomes an exercise in over-symbolism, lack of plot development and community theater acting. The tendency to bludgeon the audience with symbolism, inter-cutting between the slaughter of a cattle and the murder of Tesfaye for example, has been the signature of Gerima since Harvest 3000. Such overt use of symbolism, while fashionable in the black and white morality of the 1970's, looks and feels amateurish today in a world of nuanced morality. Another major problem with Teza is lack of plot development. The most glaring example of this is the assault of Anberber by the skinheads. This scene jumps at you like a bogeyman in the dark, with no effort made at building up the scene through visual motifs or foreshadowing. Teza is replete with such abrupt scenes that feel more like afterthoughts than carefully construed plot developments. And the last nail on the coffin is aptly provided by the inept actors who in all fairness are asked to read hardly plausible lines, punctuated by screaming and yelping, in an overly dramatic way. This is especially true of the lead, a very stiff actor only capable of two sets of emotions- anger and bemused detachment. Fortunately for Teza, exceptional cinematography and music provide the film with some degree of artistic integrity. Unfortunately, these qualities can be easily experienced by simply staying home and staring at some pastoral Ethiopian landscape while listening to traditional Ethiopian music than going out of your way to watch a movie that has very scant to offer.
Clearly, as a story, Teza has plenty of material to become a compelling film. However, under the heavy-handed direction of Haile Gerima, Teza becomes an exercise in over-symbolism, lack of plot development and community theater acting. The tendency to bludgeon the audience with symbolism, inter-cutting between the slaughter of a cattle and the murder of Tesfaye for example, has been the signature of Gerima since Harvest 3000. Such overt use of symbolism, while fashionable in the black and white morality of the 1970's, looks and feels amateurish today in a world of nuanced morality. Another major problem with Teza is lack of plot development. The most glaring example of this is the assault of Anberber by the skinheads. This scene jumps at you like a bogeyman in the dark, with no effort made at building up the scene through visual motifs or foreshadowing. Teza is replete with such abrupt scenes that feel more like afterthoughts than carefully construed plot developments. And the last nail on the coffin is aptly provided by the inept actors who in all fairness are asked to read hardly plausible lines, punctuated by screaming and yelping, in an overly dramatic way. This is especially true of the lead, a very stiff actor only capable of two sets of emotions- anger and bemused detachment. Fortunately for Teza, exceptional cinematography and music provide the film with some degree of artistic integrity. Unfortunately, these qualities can be easily experienced by simply staying home and staring at some pastoral Ethiopian landscape while listening to traditional Ethiopian music than going out of your way to watch a movie that has very scant to offer.