An exciting screenplay written by Tej Rae and Yonas Gorfe, ‘Abyssinia Steel’ was the quarter finalist for the 2024 Manchester Film Festival. Abyssinia Steel is a heist movie about the Princess Tsehay airplane, and the team are actively looking for partners to help them produce the film.
Here is a summary of the plot: Jazz pianist Zeray Deres has been rebelling against his Ethiopian pilot father all his life, but when his father becomes terminally ill, Zeray has a choice to make: whether to carry out his father’s wish to steal the first airplane made in Ethiopia from Rome and take her back to Addis Ababa––or to pursue his music career.
The opening scene takes place in 1935. On a repurposed racetrack in Addis Ababa, Emperor Haile Selassie presides over the virgin flight of the Princess Tsehay, the first plane built in Ethiopia, named after his fourth daughter. Citizens of the city are suspicious of the new technology, but before they have time to decide if the airplane is the devil’s work, Italian invaders storm the city in 1936 and take her back to Rome as a war trophy.
On the 10 Feb 2024, the real airplane finally came home, returned by the Italian government to Ethiopia.
Please reach out (contacts below) if you or anyone you know might be interested!
Tej Rae tejrae@gmail.com
Yonas Gorfe yonasgorfe@gmail.com