Film-maker returns to Ethiopia

Yosef Haimanot was 13 when he fled to the UK from Ethiopia

A film producer who fled to Britain from war-torn Ethiopia when he was 13 is to return to the country to make a documentary about his experiences.

Yosef Haimanot, 30, was living as a street child after becoming separated from his family during the conflict.

He stowed away on a cargo vessel bound for Newcastle and grew up in the UK's north east. He studied film in Newport and is now a producer based in Cardiff.

His film about returning to Ethiopia for the first time in 17 years.

Mr Haimanot plans six hour-long programmes retracing his steps from the age of 10, when he left home, to the age of 13 when he climbed up the anchor chain of a Greek cargo ship in Djibouti harbour.

During those three years, he survived the famine which made headline news about the world, sparking the 1985 Live Aid concert in the UK and in Philadelphia.

With three friends he trekked across harsh rocky ground to the port city state of Djibouti, almost dying of thirst.

Live Aid was held at Wembley Stadium, and in Philadelphia

While in Djibouti, he was almost killed while escaping being drafted into the Ethiopian army. Others were rounded up.

In 1988 he and a friend stowed away on the Greek ship but were discovered and locked up until the vessel arrived in Newcastle.

There they were handed over to immigration officers and the pair were put in the care of the social services.

Mr Haimanot went to school for three years but did not finish his education because his English was not good enough.

When his English improved, he went back to college to study performing arts and went on to attend International Film School Wales at the University of Wales, Newport, where he took the MA film course.

He now lives and works in Cardiff. However, since arriving the UK, he has lost his own language, Amharic, as well as contact with most of his family.

He has not seen his mother since leaving home. His father died shortly afterwards.

'Ambitious project'

"I felt the time was right to go back and see my family," said Mr Haimanot, who became a father two years ago.

"I did a lot of daring things as a child. I risked my life many times just to survive.

"I thought the time was right for me to go back and try to find those members of my family that I can."

Gethin Wile, Development Manager at Newport's film school, remembers Mr Haimanot and congratulated him for his latest project.

He said: "Yosef produced a very ambitious graduation project on the theme of estrangement in society.

"It naturally drew on his own cultural references and there was promise in it.

"He obviously has a unique vision coming from his background of East Africa and UK."