DIFRET

Along with Angelina Jolie, Truth Aid Media produced the award-winning drama Difret, based on the inspirational true story of a young Ethiopian girl and a tenacious lawyer embroiled in a life-or-death clash between cultural traditions and their country’s advancement of equal rights. When 14-year-old Hirut is abducted in her rural village’s tradition of kidnapping women for marriage, she fights back, accidentally killing her captor and intended husband. Local law demands a death sentence for Hirut, but Meaza, a tough and passionate lawyer from a women’s legal ai practice, steps in to fight for her. With both Hirut’s life and the future of the practice at stake the two women must make their case for self-defense against one of Ethiopia’s oldest and most deeply-rooted traditions. Difret paints a portrait of a country in a time of great transformation and the brave individuals ready to help shape it.

Called by the LA Times “compelling” and “authentic”,  it was the first film to win audience awards at both Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals in 2014. When he hosted a screening of the film at a the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Secretary of State John Kerry called Difret “a story of conscience and conviction that ought to inspire everybody.” Difret was used as a tool to advocate for the end of child marriage by organizations around the world - making a real-world impact in the lives of thousands. Difret also was the official Ethiopian submission to the Foreign Language category of the Academy Awards. 

Thanks to the over 156,000 supporters that signed our Difret petition, together, the U.S. Government agreed to develop and deliver a coordinated strategy across multiple U.S. government agencies for ending child marriage and promoting the empowerment of adolescent girls globally.

For more information, click here. Watch Difret now on iTunes and Amazon.

TRT 1 hour 39 minutes.