The Cannes International Pan-African Film Festival puts directors and their projects in competition held from October 19-24, 2021. During the Closing Ceremony of the Dikalo Awards 2021, the juries of the 18th edition awarded the best in each of the categories.
Filmmakers and their projects get to compete for a Dikalo Award over the course of the “Festival International du Film Panafricain de Cannes”. During the Closing Ceremony, the judge’s panel for this 18th edition of the Festival awards the best films in each of their categories on the 24th October, 2021.
The multi-award winner Quragnaye (Enchained) written and directed by Moges Tafesse and produced by Synergy Habesha Films and Communications is the official 2021 Dikalo Award Winner for Best Feature Length Fiction and for Best Actor / Best Actor Feature Length Fiction / Zerihun Mulatu in his role as ‘Gobeze’.
Quragnaye (Enchained)
A Historical Drama
Written & Directed By Moges Tafesse
Synopsis
Gobeze, a timid, peace-loving, young man of 25; a brilliant student who dedicates his whole life to “Sem Ina Werq” riddles (literally translated to “Wax and Gold”, which are riddles with dual meaning). lives with the family of his betrothed, his childhood sweetheart Aleme, until one day when she is abducted and disappears. Consumed by his love, Gobeze becomes a “kolo temari” (a wanderer student) and searches for her for seven years. When he finally finds her, the two young lovers decide to run away together but are soon caught by Gonite, her husband. Neighbors stall the ensuing fight and an elder bind together the two men’s clothes, symbolically chaining them together, and tells them they must travel to the capital to stand trial in the queen’s court.
“Enchained” during their long 15-day journey – the two men can neither untie the knot that binds them, nor can they physically harm the other during their long travel – the men traverse a number of challenges so that the experienced litigator Gonite and the inexperienced student, Gobeze can stand trial before the court of Queen Zewditu to settle their dispute. At the royal court, they perform a traditional debate with double meaning and poetic riddles, and movement and gesticulation to impress the queen and the attendants of the open court.
Written & Directed by Moges Tafessa, Enchained, asks the question, “How far would you go to exact justice on a person that had wronged you? Would you take punishment into your own hands, or wait for the system to exact the appropriate punishment?”
Quragnaye (Enchained) won awards at DIKALO AWARDS 2021
Underwriting facility set to energise geothermal development in Kenya, Ethiopia
FSD Africa, the UK Government’s flagship financial sector programme in Africa, and Parhelion, a UK-based specialist energy and climate risk finance advisory company, announced plans to launch a first-of-its-kind underwriting facility, backed by East African insurers, to de-risk early-stage development of geothermal energy projects with the capacity to significantly expand electricity access and energy sector resilience in Kenya and Ethiopia.
The energy sectors in Kenya and Ethiopia face several systemic issues as large number of people continue to live without electricity – 12.5 million in Kenya and 42 million in Ethiopia are still unconnected. Growth in energy demand is outstripping supply and current sources of energy are either carbon-emitting or climate vulnerable.
East Africa has a potential geothermal capacity of 15,000 MWe; however, just 500 MW is operational in Kenya while Ethiopia has installed just 7 MW. With support from the programme, Parhelion and FSD Africa forecast a 20% increase in geothermal output for Kenya and a 500% rise in Ethiopia, preventing more than 515,000 tonnes of CO2e per year. This is expected to create 2,600 jobs in renewable energy and insurance sectors, while bringing electricity to 5.25 million people who currently live without power.
New guide will help African countries measure progress on sustainable development
A new guide developed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) will support African countries with the monitoring and reporting of their progress on sustainable urban development.
The ‘Reference Guide on City Indicators and Measurement in Africa’ contains 107 city-level indicators for 17 categories, covering all aspects of sustainable urban development such as energy, environment and economy. Under each indicator, it meticulously defines how and when the specific data should be collected as well as its unit, source, provider, processing methods and disaggregation standards in line with good practice and regional context.
For local authorities, the guide will serve as a one-stop solution to measure, analyze and disseminate how well their cities perform against the indicators which are based on the city-specific commitments outlined in international agreements such as the New Urban Agenda, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
EU funded biogas project introduces digital platform
The Digital Global Biogas Cooperation (DiBiCoo) is set to introduce its Digital Matchmaking Platform. The Platform, an online networking tool for stakeholders in the biogas industry, is expected to bring biogas stakeholders from across the world and provide opportunities for matchmaking.
DiBiCoo was launched in October 2019 in Brussels, with a budget of 2.9 million Euros and has been working towards promotion of commercial biogas plants in Ethiopia. The project will hold its 2nd stakeholder workshop to introduce the Digital Biogas and Gasification Platform and present progress of partnerships to demonstrate commercial biogas plants by Ethiopian developers.
Part of DiBiCoo’s commitment to develop digital support tools for the biogas sector, the Platform offers a plethora of resources on the sector and will feature projects from the five main importing countries; Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, Argentina and Indonesia.
“The Platform makes it easy to find the right gasification technology and brings business opportunities for importing and exporting countries,” said Wondwossen Bogale (PhD), iceaddis project staff and a leading expert on renewable energy. “It is a great opportunity to access leading stakeholders in the biogas and gasification sector in Europe.”
