Duka's Dilemma

A remarkably intimate portrait of life among the Hamar, who live with small herds of cattle and goats and cultivate fields of sorghum in their remote, bush-covered lands in Southern Ethiopia, it's easy to see why Hofstra University anthropologist Marcelo Fiorini called Duka's Dilemma a "masterpiece of both anthropology and film." Duka is a married Hamar woman with five children, and her dilemma--rarely encountered among her people--is how to handle the rippling effects of a family crisis when her husband exercises his right to marry more than one woman: in this case, a second wife who is younger, soon pregnant, and unresponsive to Duka. Anthropologist/filmmaker Jean Lydall and her daughter Kaira Strecker have clearly gained the trust of the Hamar over the course of 30 years of study and friendship, and the result here is an ethnographic documentary that is professionally valuable, highly personal (with a live real-time birth scene and constant casual nudity), and illumined with Duka's soul-searching candor regarding family matters. Anyone curious about small, semi-primitive cultures will find this film fascinating, although it's honestly unlikely to have much widespread appeal outside of its intended audience of academics in anthropological studies. Recommended, with reservations. Aud: C, P. (J. Shannon)