Le Miel d'Harar

source: Sweetness in the Belly

Unique, indeed unique. Lily showed us all the mystery of alone. Lily showered us with the blessing of manifest faith, in God, in love, in people. Fanning's portrayal had to be accurate; after all, she was the white kid from Georgia playing a white kid from Ethiopia. How she portrayed her role and survived, if not thrived, from those roots was inspirational. Her Lily's survival fierceness from deep faith in Amina, Aziz and Allah bore great witness. As a Christian, I know that Lily and I would have different views of Jesus the Christ, but oh how I would love to sit across a table, each of us with a coffee. I loved the introduction to Sufi, as contrasted to Shiite or Sunni manifestations of Islam. Thank you Zereseny Berhane Mehari! I look forward to reading Gibbs' novel to know from where Lily was reading Amina's letter. Roots indeed.

Ok, this is a good dramatic movie. Like all dramas can be slow paced a bit. However it has a good story, the actors are amazing. Aminah and Lili were great in particular. I was also impressed as an Arabic speaker with Dakota Famning pronounciation and she makes it believable that her character studied Islam. 10 is pushing it but there's no way that the movie should scored so low.

It was revealing how Lilly is disrespected and viewed with jealousy by most of the darker skinned women. Just because she has a lighter tone skin, they assumed she was given more by Allah. Injustice is blamed for the poverty instead of the socialist policies. Anger that a man chose a woman with different skin colour. Lilly did a great job trying to Ethiopian and just a person, but people got in the way with their leftist ideals.

I have lived in Africa and traveled through Africa as a white woman. I have not spent time in Ethiopia, though I have spent quite a bit of time in Egypt and Morocco. What I loved about this film, and the novel upon which it is based is that it points out the inherent privileges of some while also speaking to the universal experience of grief, loss, and faith. The acting was superb. The story is honest and heartfelt. I recommend giving it a try.

I watched this movie straight after having finished the book - which was my mistake. I guess I didn't see the movie for what it was on it's own. I thought Dakota was amazing and the actress who played Amina stole my heart. Yahya Abdul Mateen was a good choice for Aziz I believe. The problem was with fast pacing, and the fact that some scenes just don't make sense unless you read the book and understand it more. Characters were not as fleshed out as was needed to truly sympathise with them and understand why they say the things they do. Of course in just under 2 hours we can't expect the film to show everything that happens in the book, but some pivotal points like how Lily and Aziz eventually got together was skimmed over in the film for me. Overall it managed to find it's way through the plot but failed to fully capture the soul within sweetness in the belly,

I watched the movie with high expectation from director zeresenay mehari from his former defret movie... The movie shows how the production attention was totally on casting famous hollywood actors not on the story narration...as an Ethiopian for me it was totally waste of time... trying to listen the language that the actors created in between speaking amharic and english..it was better if they used to cast original actor except dakota fanning.. The cinematography is good and the locations are beautiful...

Lovers separated by civil war, a woman in the UK try to find the man who may still be in Ethiopia. It's not really suitable for a film. Even I know this even I haven't read the book. After a while, your brain will turn to irony mode, as you become aware that the story is full of it, as it is the theme. It has becoming common plot nowadays, although the background story is a smart one.

To be honest, I expected more from this film. I felt this film fulfilled the value of the hollywood verse rather than fulfilling the story that this film wanted to lift. I really like how this film tries to raise family conflicts set in Africa, with Islam as its theme. But in some parts, I feel the interpretation of Islam here is messy when there is a Hollywood romance verse here. I mean, how can a woman for years adhere to strong holy teachings, but like collapsing when she meets a man (played by Yahya Abdul Maten). apart from that, i really like acting dakota fanning. The Arabic that Fanning does is practically perfect, and also, how she prays, and behaves as Islam. Despite everything, the backstory that is lifted from the main character here is very interesting. it is very rare that we can find hollywood films that carry stories based on Islam. not a lot of cinematography and special scoring, but the story is quite interesting despite all the flaws and verses.

I almost didn't watch it because of the ridiculously low rating. It's a nice, authentic, non-hollywood movie. No CGI, or dreadfully ludicrous, unrealistic fight sequences. It felt honest and authentic, like a good indie film should be.