Ashenda | A Somber Celebration of Freedom

Also on Nebiat Assefa's channel: [   • Ashenda | A Somber Celebration of Freedom  ] Filmed during Ashenda 2025, this short documentary sits with the women of Tigray in the space between celebration and grief. Ashenda is meant to be three days of total freedom, but for the women in this film, the war's aftermath is still present. Loss without closure, violence without justice, and a government they describe as too consumed by its own dysfunction to rebuild what was lost. Since filming, events have only sharpened the film's urgency. In 2026, Tigray's main Ashenda gathering was cancelled over fears of a drone strike, and a court acquitted the men convicted of killing Zewdu Haftu, a woman murdered during Ashenda in 2023. This is a standalone short film, part of an ongoing feature-length documentary project. Sources referenced in this film: UN Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) · Human Rights Watch · Physicians for Human Rights · Amnesty International · Commission of Inquiry on Tigray Genocide (CITG) Directed by Ashenafi Lemlem and Nebiat Assefa Melles Produced by Nebiat Assefa Melles A Documenting Africa Film Production [https://www.documentingafrica.org] #Tigray #Ashenda #Ethiopia #Documentary #WomensRights