Over 50 years ago, a group of non-literate farmers who envisioned a different way of living, rejected patriarchal norms, religious hierarchy, and inherited power. They replaced them with shared labor, gender equality, and collective governance. In Ethiopia, a country still ranked among the lowest in gender equity, this vision
remains astonishing—and controversial.

Awra Amba was created as an intentional break from the inequality and sectarianism surrounding it. Its founder, Zumra Nuru, now 78, is one of the most recognized public figures in Ethiopia. He never went to school but received an honorary doctorate for his vision of equality and harmonious living. He is still a central figure in the village and wears a bright green hat in honor of the trees that once sheltered him as a young outcast. His story, like the village’s, is one of perseverance.

The film opens in the arid highlands of Northern Ethiopia, as morning breaks in the village of Awra Amba. A large sycamore tree stands in the heart of the village. Men are cooking breakfast, women are running the computer center, and the community’s vocal group rehearses before heading to work. These opening scenes hint at a world both familiar and quietly radical. In Awra Amba, there are no assigned gender roles, no clergy, no inheritance laws based on bloodlines. What exists instead is a shared effort to build a society rooted in fairness, cooperation and mutual care.

By weaving together daily life, historical memory, and political tension, the film presents this unique community in its full complexity. Archival footage and oral history frame the early years: attacks by neighbors, the confiscation of land during military rule, and forced exile. Today, the threats are new, but just as real. When in 2023, amid growing regional conflict, several leaders including Zumra were forced into exile again, we show how, even from afar, they continue to lead, holding Zoom meetings, launching businesses, and establishing the Awra Amba
Microfinance Bank.

The themes of the film: equality, cooperative living and peaceful coexistence, perfectly align with the themes of the ASA 2026 conference. This film arrives at a critical juncture. The stakes have never been higher. It asks: what happens when ideals are tested by instability? What does leadership look like in exile? How does a new generation inherit a legacy that was born from rupture? The answers, as they unfold onscreen, offer a rare and necessary meditation on the future of community life—one that resonates far beyond Ethiopia.

The heart of the film is present-day life in the village. The main storyline follows the community as it works to sustain its values while navigating external pressure, including the generational transitions in leadership, and the tension between tradition and reinvention. The central conflict lies in the balance between protecting a fragile experiment in shared life and adapting to survive in a fractured nation.

This film does not aim to romanticize Awra Amba. It takes viewers inside one of the most quietly radical communities in the world– a village that, against every structural and cultural barrier, has built a functioning, peaceful, and egalitarian society from scratch. At a time when the global landscape is marked by rising
division, the erosion of women’s rights, and social fragmentation, the story of Awra Amba is urgent. It offers not a critique, but a working alternative. It shows what can be done.