Salome Mulugeta’s film Woven follows two Ethiopian families searching for happiness in New York’s close Ethiopian community, where old traditions sit beside modern city life. A tragedy links the two families and opens a web of secrets. The veteran actor Alemtsehay Wodajo plays the mother, and Mulugeta plays the daughter.
The photograph shows the National Theatre in Addis Ababa. It is not a scene from the film.
Mulugeta co-wrote and co-directed the film, and she stars in it. Essence reported that the picture took her about 15 years to bring to the screen. It came out in late 2018, in English and in Amharic with subtitles. By early 2019 it was playing in Los Angeles and on Amazon. Listings on iTunes and Google Play were expected that January.
In June 2019, the writer of a Borkena culture note said many Ethiopians, including the writer, had already seen Woven, and that the film was becoming widely watched.