Ethiopian-Israeli director Aalam-Warqe Davidian's acclaimed debut feature film "Fig Tree" won the prestigious Audentia Award for Best Female Director at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday. The award comes with a prize of €30,000 ($34,952).
Set at the end of the Ethiopian Civil War and filmed entirely in Ethiopia, "Fig Tree" follows a Jewish Ethiopian teenage girl, Mina, as she attempts to save her Christian boyfriend from being drafted, even as she and her family prepare to flee the country for Israel.
The film, in Amharic with Hebrew and English subtitles, defeated 12 others in the final round.
Davidian, 38, moved to Israel when she was 11 and graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem.
She has made history as the first Israeli woman of Ethiopian heritage to direct a full-length feature film.
"I went through a lot of emotional ups and downs this week with the film's screening at the Toronto International Film Festival," Davidian said on Sunday.
"Alongside the joy of fulfilling a six-year project, and the story's exposure three continents away from where it takes place and two continents from my home, there were also a lot of questions over the significance of my filmmaking. What am I really telling in the story? Is it important? Who am I telling it to? Is it touching anyone?"
She added that winning the award encourages her to continue her film work.
The film festival's official website said, "'Fig Tree' offers us a rare opportunity to better understand the impact of civil war on the lives of ordinary people – and it pulls no punches."
