Adaptations Adding Flavor to Ethiopian Cinema
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Loading... - Hamia Messaoudi
- 01 May 2023
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The popularity of book-to-film adaptations is rising. Popular books are frequently adapted into movies and television shows because studios want to capitalise on a successful idea that already has a following, bringing it to a larger audience. Georges Melies, a pioneer who paved the path for numerous film methods, is credited with creating the first known footage of a book-to-film adaptation. In 1899, he produced two adaptations: Cinderella, based on the Brothers Grimm tale, and King John, the first film known to be based on Shakespeare. His other work is based on the English author H. Rider Haggard’s adventure tale, Her. The practice is also being adapted into Ethiopian cinema, writes EBR’s Trualem Asmare.
Ethiopia’s rich literary history spans millennia, filled with folktales, stories, and poems that have been handed down through generations. Ethiopian literature is currently developing and expanding, with a number of well-known authors writing in Amharic and English, as well as a broad range of new genres like fantasy, science fiction, and romance.
One piece of literature that has always been presented as a testimonial to this rich literary history is Fikir Eske Mekabir, loosely translated to “Love until the End”. Written by the late Haddis Alemayehu, this epic romance drama is remembered fondly by Ethiopians aged 35 years and older.
For those young people who may have missed this monumental literature piece, they might still have a chance to catch it in the form of a movie. Sewmehon Yismaw and his colleagues are working with EBC, the national public service broadcaster, on a project worth roughly ETB 42 million to adapt Fikr Eske Mekabir into a movie. The author’s family is contesting the team of artist over rights, but if and when it happens, the adaptation will be one of a kind as a piece of art and as a practice in general.
Book-to-film adaptations are often based on books with wide popularity, well-liked by many readers and widely purchased. Making a movie out of a book also depends on the professional’s background, and their ability to modify the book and make it suitable for the screen. Read More…
