‘Crumbs’ An Ethiopian Post-Apocalyptic, Surreal, Sci-Fi Film

5 Feb

by Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and Act

An unexpectedly peculiar film, and I love what I see here, if only for that reason. But there’s more than enough in it to make me want to see the entire film. It’s not exactly a regular occurrence that I come across post-apocalyptic, sci-fi romance films, starring Ethiopians.

Miguel Llansó’s “Crumbs,” a Spanish-Ethiopian co-production which made its world premiere on Tuesday (Jan 27) at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), will have its market premiere at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin next week, where it’ll be shopped by Warsaw-based sales company, New Europe Film Sales.

Directed by Spaniard Llansó, who actually lives in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), “Crumbs” stars Daniel Tadesse, and tells a story of diminutive superhero Gagano (played by Tadesse), a junk collector, who embarks on a “surreal epic journey” that’s set against “post-apocalyptic Ethiopian landscapes,” says the press description. He’s had enough of collecting “valuable crumbs of a decayed civilization,” when a spaceship that has been hovering high in the sky for years, starts showing signs of activity, and Gagano has to overcome his fears – which includes a witch, Santa Claus and second-generation Nazis – to find out that the world isn’t quite what he thought it was.

Intrigued? I am. It reads like something I’d make.

The director/actor pair (Llansó and Tadesse) have worked together before, on the award-winning 2013 short film “Chigger Ale,” about, wait for it… “Hitler´s Ethiopian clone.” It enjoyed a successful international film festival run, but I haven’t seen it, so can’t offer any useful commentary on the work, and what one can expect from “Crumbs,” which is their first feature film collaboration.

Jan Naszewski of New Europe Film Sales (the company that’s repping the film at the EFM) describes Llansó as a filmmaker with “a very distinctive voice… and we want to nurture it.”

I should be able to get my hands on a screener of the film, so we can have an informed conversation about it on this blog. I suspect it’ll be picked up by a Stateside film festival this year – at least, we hope.