Filmmaker explores European views of Ethiopia’s last emperor
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Ruth Beckermann, an Austrian documentary filmmaker, examined European perceptions of Haile Selassie, the former emperor of Ethiopia, in her new film Wax & Gold.
Beckermann’s work challenges a history of outside observation by focusing on the stories Ethiopians tell about their own past. The film builds on a publishing project from 1985 called Die andere Bibliothek (The Other Library), which introduced European readers to writers like Ryszard Kapuszynski, a Polish reporter who wrote about Africa.
Kapuszynski’s book König der Könige (King of Kings), originally published in 1978, described old Ethiopia during Haile Selassie’s reign and presented the emperor as a figure of great wealth and power. Beckermann’s film aims to move beyond this type of external portrayal. By exploring Ethiopian narratives, she seeks to understand the truth behind Addis Ababa and the legacy of Haile Selassie from an internal perspective, deconstructing the established European gaze.
The film suggests a shift in how stories about Ethiopia are told and who tells them.
