One Love – Story of Rastafarians’ Return from Babylon to Zion

This warm documentary about Rastafarians in Ethiopia by Czech director Petr Zahrádka reveals a fairly unknown side of Africa at a gentle pace. Ever since 1955, Rastafarians have come from the United States, the Caribbean and United Kingdom to Ethiopia. Haile Selassie (the Ethiopian emperor Ras Tafari) reserved 500 hectares of land for each African who wanted to return to the spot from which his forefathers had been taken as slaves. The country of the Rastafarians is in the south of Ethiopia, near the small town of Shashemene. About one hundred rastas have moved there, dissatisfied with their lives in the West. For some, it is the fulfilment of a dream they savoured all their lives. They have built a school and are working on an independent administration for the region. Unlike the Christians in Europe, they believe they can live in paradise on earth; for them Ethiopia is the promised land. Zahrádka is a skilful observer of these people and their lives in absolute freedom – an abstract concept for Westerners. He offers us a respectful, but not exotic look at this small piece of Africa. A fascinating, non-touristic journey into peace, faith, satisfaction and smoking the herb that God gave the Rastafarians that they could get closer to him. (LC)

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