text: The tragic story of Aberash Bekele, a teenage victim of “marriage by abduction” in Ethiopia, was told to a global audience in a 1999 documentary “Schoolgirl Killer” [click here to see the full 50-minute documentary]). Charlotte Metcalfe, the director of the documentary said the decision to make “Schoolgirl Killer” came about fortuitously. In 1996, Metcalfe made a film about “child brides in Bahir Dar [Ethiopia] working closely with Original Georgis at the Ethiopian Women’s Lawyer’s Association in Addis Ababa [EWLA].” As she describes it, she “attended a four-year-old’s wedding (during which I filmed a distressing scene of the small child bride crying uncontrollably) and followed the nuptials of 11-year-old Nibret.” That documentary was “Young Wives’ Tales”, commissioned by the United Nations Fund for Population and won a UNICEF award.
  Metcalfe became aware of Aberash’s case when she saw Aberash’s photograph in the office of EWLA in Addis Ababa. Metcalfe subsequently met Aberash, and after long discussions Aberash agreed to take part in a documentary. “I then went back to the UK to raise the money to make it. On board were Brian Woods, the multi-award-winning film-maker at True Vision [a British television, film and documentary production company that has won numerous international awards for its human rights-related films] as producer and David Pearson, Commissioning Editor at the BBC’s renowned Under The Sun,” said Metcalfe.
  “Schoolgirl Killer” is at once gripping, engaging, mesmerizing, captivating, dispassionate and compassionate. Metcalfe is a consummate documentarian who is able to tell the tragic story of “marriage by abduction” with sensitivity, subtlety, sympathy and compassion. Metcalfe demonstrates her consummate craftsmanship as a documentarian by simply setting the stage for the various protagonists — Aberash, her parents and siblings, the parents of Aberash’s abductor, community elders, the lawyers, judges — to tell their story directly to the viewer. Metcalfe rolls the camera as the tragic story of the institution of “marriage by abduction” is told from a variety of perspectives. Indeed, it seems that the various protagonists in the story are directing the film as Metcalfe held the camera. She does not editorialize or advocate and is not even judgmental, which is extraordinarily difficult not to be under the circumstances. That style of film-making is what makes documentary powerfully persuasive, provocative and even shocking to the conscience.
  After watching the film, the viewer is challenged to react; but how does one react to a tragedy whose origins are lost in the fog of history and tradition but must be stopped before it replants its virus and destroy the coming generations of young Ethiopian girls and women? My reaction to “Schoolgirl Killer” was outrage against that institution as a monumental violation of human rights followed by a commitment to campaign for its eradication from the face of the earth. I do not overestimate myself. As Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund said, “You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.”
  Metcalfe is “delighted that Aberash’s story has gained worldwide attention” and turned into a “a major movie [winning] great acclaim and prizes at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals.” But she is “saddened that there seems to be squabbling over who ‘owns’ the story.” Metcalfe “deeply believes that the story told in Difret is primarily Aberash’s story” and that any promises of financial compensation made to her should be honored. “After all, it was her courage and astonishing resilience at such a young age that makes the story so compelling.”