7 Best Movies Set in or About Ethiopia

7 Movies Set in or About Ethiopia

Foreign-led films whose sustained setting or subject remains centered on Ethiopia.

1. 

   1. The Great Appeal

   Il grande appello · 1936

   During Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, an Italian barkeeper in Djibouti who has been trafficking arms to the Ethiopians is confronted with a choice between profit and patriotism when he discovers his long-lost son fighting for the fascist cause. A wartime drama.

2. 

   2. Piccoli naufraghi

   1939

   During the Ethiopian war, thirteen boys stow away on a merchant ship bound for Africa, only to be shipwrecked and cast away on a desert island, where they must band together to survive. An adventure film.

3. 

   3. 438 Days

   438 dagar · 2019

   Based on a true story, two Swedish journalists slip illegally into Ethiopia to investigate an oil company's dealings, only to be captured, imprisoned, and made pawns in a political game for 438 grueling days. A tense survival drama.

4. 

   4. Cardinal Messias

   Abuna Messias - Vendetta africana · 1939

   At the close of the 19th century, a cardinal who has spent two decades as a missionary in Ethiopia returns to Italy to plead for support for his cause. A reverent biographical drama.

5. 

   5. The Athlete

   2009

   This drama tells the story of Abebe Bikila, the Ethiopian runner who won Olympic marathon gold running barefoot, and the life-altering accident that later tested his extraordinary spirit. A biographical portrait of a national hero.

6. 

   6. Sweetness in the Belly

   2019

   A white woman raised as a devout Muslim in Africa flees the turmoil of 1970s Ethiopia for England, where she works among immigrants while searching for the man she loved and left behind. A drama of faith, love, and displacement adapted from Camilla Gibb's novel.

7. 

   7. Shaft in Africa

   1973

   Harlem private eye John Shaft is recruited to smash a brutal ring smuggling African laborers into Europe, a case that takes him from Ethiopia to Paris. The third entry in the Shaft series.