In collaboration with the Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development (GTD) research group at Maastricht University, Lumière Maastricht will screen the documentary Made In Ethiopia, about the arrival of a Chinese factory complex in rural Ethiopia. The research group will introduce the film and, after the screening, host a Q&A with the director.

For more than a decade, the GTD research group has been dedicated to expanding understanding of the global interconnections of societal issues within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. This autumn, GTD and Lumière are jointly organising a film series focusing on three core themes from GTD’s research: poverty & inequality, activism & solidarity, and migration & diversity. Each film will be followed by a panel discussion.

A dusty farming town in Ethiopia suddenly finds itself at the new frontier of globalization. The factory complex’s Chinese director Motto now needs to do her utmost to push through a high-stakes expansion. Ethiopian farmer Workinesh and factory worker Beti have staked their futures on the prosperity the park promises. But as initial hope meets painful realities, they find themselves, like their country, at a pivotal crossroads.

Filmed over four years with singular access, Made In Ethiopia lifts the curtain on China’s historic but misunderstood impact on Africa, and explores contemporary Ethiopia at a moment of profound crisis. The film throws audiences into two colliding worlds: an industrial juggernaut fuelled by profit and progress, and a vanishing countryside where life is still measured by the cycle of the seasons. And its nuance, complexity and multi-perspective approach go beyond black-and-white narratives of victims and villains. As the three women’s stories unfold, Made In Ethiopia challenges us to rethink the relationship between tradition and modernity, growth and welfare, the development of a country and the well-being of its people.