Copyright The Hollywood Reporter
an open field, a 38-minute short film from director Teboho Edkins and his father and producer Don Edkins, which will world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) on Sunday, is very personal. In March 2019, a Boeing 737 MAX airplane crashed just six minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. All 157 people on board died, including Max Thabiso Edkins, the director’s younger brother. So, he and his father decided to travel together to the crash site “to seek something tangible in their grief,” as a synopsis for an open field notes. “What they find is a community in which mourning is an important part of the culture. Just as for the Edkins family, the lives of the villagers have also been turned upside down by the crash. In a deeply moving experience, they discover that the community members who welcome them regard the crash victims as visiting guests, whom they have taken into their hearts as brothers and sisters. Their compassion contrasts starkly with the calculating stance of airplane manufacturer Boeing. As if attempting somehow to connect with his brother’s spirit, the filmmaker immerses himself in the sounds of the disaster site.” The movie, a South Africa, France, Germany production, is co-produced by Carine Chichkowsky for Survivance, with cinematography courtesy of Jide Akinleminu and editing handled by Anne Fabini. The film, shot in color and black-and-white and featuring dialogue in both English and Amharic, will screen in the IDFA 2025 Competition for Short Documentary program. “The first time I visited the crash site, a giant crater in an open field, was shortly after the crash in 2019,” explains Teboho Edkins. “Grief-stricken, I showed the local villagers sitting by the crater photos of my brother Max and realized that they had become the custodians of the site. My father Don, a documentary film producer, felt the need to throw himself into a film project about the crash. Initially, I wanted nothing to do with it. Years passed, and I found it very difficult to begin working on the project. Also, no media was allowed close to the crash site, until, as a family member, and after much time spent by my father building relationships, Ethiopian Airlines finally gave us exclusive permission to film at the site in 2022.” Father and producer Don Edkins adds: “I wanted to make a film about the crash that would highlight the injustice that took so many lives. Having grown up under apartheid in South Africa, I had always looked at how documentary cinema could spotlight injustice and human rights, and how I could use activism and creativity to navigate the grief we felt.” And he shares: “When I went to the crash site for the first anniversary in March 2020, I met the families who lived nearby and saw how the entire community — hundreds of people — came together to mourn with us. It was a powerful moment. Such pure humanity stood in stark contrast to Boeing’s widely criticized actions, including the use of a flawed flight-control system and the failure to fully inform pilots about it — issues highlighted in official investigations and public reporting. They chose cost-cutting measures and prioritized profit over safety.” Now, THR can unveil a clip from an open field, which includes an eyewitness of the plane crash recalling what he experienced. At the end of the clip, next to the film’s title, we also see a very personal note from the filmmaker: “The film I didn’t want to make.” Check out the clip from an open field below.
