Our Way of Loving

Tonight we present all three works in the Hamar Trilogy, beautiful and engaging films in which Hamar people of remote southwest Ethiopia talk candidly with the filmmakers about their views on friendship, coming of age, and marriage.
Our Way of Loving, part three, premiering at the Mead this year, revisits Sago and Duka, a young couple whose impending marriage three years ago was the subject of Two Girls Go Hunting. They have been years of enormous political and economic changes, and the film provides a look at Hamar life after the overthrow of the Mengistu government. Candid discussions with Sago and Duka about the roles of husband and wife in a Hamar marriage reveal conflicts. "Beating is our way of loving," he says, but she isn't buying. They watch with interest the previous documentary; "How smart I was then..." comments Duka. Between these discussions, life goes on. The filmmakers' unobtrusive approach benefits from their close long-term relationship with the film's participants.