Wax & Gold, a documentary by the Austrian director Ruth Beckermann about the Hilton Addis Ababa, screens in Addis Ababa on Saturday, October 24. The film is part of the European Union Film Festival Addis Ababa 2026, which opened on Friday night at the Ethiopian National Theatre.
Videobet Cinema, the festival’s main venue near Meskel Square, lists the screening for 6 p.m. local time. Entry is free. Videobet says a question and answer session with the director will follow the film.
A Hotel From 1969
The Hilton Addis Ababa opened in 1969, Screen International reported in its review of the film. It was part of a national modernization program under Emperor Haile Selassie.
Beckermann stayed at the hotel to make the film, according to the Berlin International Film Festival, also known as the Berlinale. It says she mixes archive footage of the emperor with present-day conversations and interviews at the hotel. She also shares her own thoughts as a European woman. Outside the hotel, the camera shows workers waiting in long lines at bus stops and the frames of unfinished high-rise buildings.
The film had its world premiere at the Berlinale in February. It runs 97 minutes and is in German, English, Italian and Amharic.
Samuel Yirga Plays in the Film
According to the Screen review, Beckermann films staff meetings, fashion shows and wedding receptions at the Hilton. She also interviews the communications entrepreneur Yasser Bagersh and the emperor’s elderly valet.
In one part, a young local writer reads from The Emperor, the 1978 book by the Polish writer Ryszard Kapuscinski, while Samuel Yirga improvises music on the piano. Samuel is an Ethiopian pianist, and NPR profiled him in 2012 after his debut album, Guzo.
What the Title Means
The review explains that the title comes from an old Ethiopian form of poetry. In Amharic it is called sem ena werq, which means wax and gold. It is the defining feature of qene, a kind of poetry that developed in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
A line of qene has a plain meaning on the surface, which is the wax. It also has a hidden meaning underneath, which is the gold. The name comes from goldsmiths, who drain the wax from a clay mold and fill the mold with gold. Beckermann applies the same idea to the Hilton Addis Ababa.
Video: the official trailer for Wax & Gold by Ruth Beckermann, from the YouTube channel of the Berlin International Film Festival.
The Festival Runs Until November 21
Wax & Gold opened in cinemas in Austria on September 11, according to its Austrian distributor, Filmladen. In Addis Ababa, the festival continues every weekend until November 21. It closes that night at the National Theatre with Sentimental Value from Norway, Videobet said.
On Sunday at 6 p.m., the Italian film Quasi Grazia screens with a master class by its producer.
