The Film
Set in the 1960s YETUT LIJ ፨ የጡት ልጅ ("Child of the Breast") is a film about the struggle for love and freedom, in the face of local and global forces. Aynalem, a peasant girl, from the Ethiopian countryside, gets adopted by a wealthy judge’s family.
Despite their promise to provide her with an education and a better life, Aynalem is forced to live as a domestic servant, under the close scrutiny and brutal treatment of her employers. Somehow, without them knowing, she manages to meet and fall in love with Tilahun, an ordinary policeman, who helps Aynalem to escape her bleak circumstances.
Years later, Tilahun finds Aynalem in Asmara, Eritrea, where an American GI has made her his “girlfriend-for-hire”. Though, genuine affection exists between the two of them, the stark realities of wealth and power threaten their chance to be together.