Wax & Gold (+SDH)

A stay at the legendary Hilton hotel in Addis Abeba and Kapuściński’s “The Emperor” serve as a point of departure for a multilayered reflection on Ethiopia’s imperial past and its fragmented present. The film intertwines personal experience with historical essay, revealing local perspectives and African contexts that shape contemporary understandings of the country. The title alludes to the Ethiopian rhetorical tradition – here, words mean more than they seem. In a world governed by a different logic of time – thirteen months in a year, a day beginning at 6 a.m., and the current year counted as 2018 – the director attempts to decode meanings hidden between history and everyday life. In the gap between systems of dates and systems of meaning, she searches for what lies beneath the surface, weaving together history, daily life, and a rhetorical tradition in which words hold both visible and hidden significance.