Last year saw the rediscovery of Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep; 2008 should be the annus mirabilis for Haile Gerima, Burnett’s classmate at UCLA Film School in the ’70s. Gerima (best known for 1993’s Sankofa) returned to his native Ethiopia in 1975 to film this incendiary epic on class exploitation. “I make your comfort possible,” an angry chorus sings—words that will ring loud long after the lights have gone up.
[This film is an official selection of the TONY Film department for the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. While it has not been given a star rating, our Film experts consider it to be among the superior entries to this event.]