Shot in a rural Ethiopian town, the tone poem “Faya Dayi” settles into a trance-like ... The smoky texture of the images led me to think of her technique as a kind of sfumato: shading in ...

Inspired by this myth, Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi” is a spiritual journey into ... There are recurring images of birds, both in flight and stationary, representative of both the dreams ...

Here's the two official trailers (+ poster) for Jessica Beshir's doc Faya Dayi, direct from YouTube: A sublime work of trance-state cinema, Faya Dayi is the debut feature documentary made by the ...

Faya Dayi is the mesmerizing result, a nonfiction work of sensory immersion that’s part anthropology, part poetry. Screening in New York in the New Directors/New Films lineup, Beshir’s first ...

Filmmaker Jessica Beshir’s bending, swaying nonfiction journey “Faya Dayi” explores rural Ethopia by way of the production and consumption of the chewable narcotic leaf called khat — an ...

A hypnotic immersion in the world of Harar, Ethiopia, a place where one commodity – khat, a euphoria-inducing plant – holds sway over the rituals and rhythms of everyday life, Faya Dayi ...

Like snatches of memory, the images are displayed one after the other. “Faya Dayi”, a hypnotic new film about life in Ethiopia’s eastern highlands, is less a documentary than a poem ...

I was viscerally torn by this predicament, which sparked my passion to make Faya Dayi.” It took Beshir nearly a decade to realize her vision, largely to challenges regarding funding.

Jessica Beshir’s mesmeric Sundance hit “Faya Dayi” won big at Visions du Réel on Saturday, scooping both its top Grand Jury Prize as well as a Fipresci International Critics Award.

Filmmaker Jessica Beshir’s bending, swaying nonfiction journey “Faya Dayi” explores rural Ethopia by way of the production and consumption of the chewable narcotic leaf called khat — an ...