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TEZETA

ԹԵԶԵՏԱ

By Aramazt KALAYJIAN, Garegin PAPOYAN

CINEMA FOUNDATION OF ARMENIA - as FIN

Biography - Post-Production 2023

Ethiopians and Armenians share a long musical history from the times of Emperor Haile Selassie, who in 1932 adopted 40 Armenian orphans from Jerusalem becoming the first imperial brass orchestra, helping to popularize brass instruments and set the foundation for a future big band jazz revolution.

- Year of production
- 2023
- Genres
- Biography, Musical, Documentary
- Countries
- ARMENIA
- Languages
- AMHARIC, ENGLISH, ARMENIAN
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 100 mn
- Director(s)
- Aramazt KALAYJIAN, Garegin PAPOYAN
- Writer(s)
- Aramazt KALAYJIAN
- Cast
- Mulatu ASTATKE, Francis FALCETTO, Alemayehu ESHETE, Vahe TILBIAN
- Producer(s)
- Aramazt KALAYJIAN, Vahan KHACHATRYAN (I.C.Penguin)
- Synopsis
- A fourth-generation white Ethiopian-Armenian music performer, Vahe Tilbian has a dream to become a pop star. In Ethiopia, he is challenged in his carrier as well as in his personal life owing to his skin color. Not being fully accepted as a white singer in the Ethiopian society despite his mastery of the language and knowledge of the culture, he grapples with questions of identity as well as his chosen path in a career as a performer. The deep roots of Armenian and Ethiopian culture both shape and challenge his questions of identity as a man and as a musician.
  
  Ethiopians and Armenians share a long musical history from the times of Emperor Haile Selassie, who in 1932 adopted 40 Armenian orphans from Jerusalem becoming the first imperial brass orchestra, helping to popularize brass instruments and set the foundation for a future big band jazz revolution in Ethiopia. The ‘Elvis of Ethiopia’ singer Alèmayèhu Eshèté, Mulatu Astatqe, Gurum Mezmur, and other great musicians shares their testimonies about the “father of Ethiopian modern music,” Nerses Nalbandian, who taught most of Ethiopia’s famous bands, orchestras, and singers. Being the last music performer in the line of Ethiopian Armenians, Vahe embarks on his path as a pop singer. In his darkest moments, ready to give up his career, Vahe receives a miraculous stroke of luck and is selected to represent Africa for Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest on the centennial commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, becoming the first Ethiopian music performer to participate in the song contest.