Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian was born in Awash, Ethiopia. She has directed the short films “Transitions” and “Facing the Wall.” “Fig Tree” is her feature directorial debut.

“Fig Tree” will begin screening at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

AWD: It is a longing film for my grandmother. It’s a kind of search for an answer to something that once was and now is lost.

Also, it’s about women who create a reality of routine and love while resisting to cooperate with a war atmosphere created by men.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

AWD: I wanted to share the spirit of women and men who touched my heart and who are still padding my memories, and perhaps give visibility and voice to the lives of many immigrants who seemed happy when they achieved their goal and arrived in the new land they so wished for.

But the truth is that for many of us, like Mina from “Fig Tree,” it was not only a new beginning but also the end of a period, and the migration remained a personal wound and tragedy.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

AWD: I’d like the film to evoke a personal family memory for the viewers — a memory that will remind them of something about their inner selves.

I’m very interested in the moments when people come and share their personal stories with me after watching the film. Then it is clear to me that the film managed to create some kind of universal closeness.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

AWD: To wait five years to make the film until we raised the budget to shoot it. Also, for the filming, I had to stay almost six months in Ethiopia and it was very hard for me to be away from my two-year-old son, who stayed home with his father in Israel.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

AWD: The film was produced by Black Sheep Film Productions, which secured mainly public money granted by film funds in Israel. Together with co-producers from France and Germany, [we also] secured some financing from public funds in their homelands.

As the film was shot entirely in Ethiopia, the film crew was constructed out of HODs [heads of department] from Israel, Germany, and France, alongside assistances from Ethiopia. It was a multicultural crew working in full harmony.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

AWD: Before I started to study filmmaking, I worked as a researcher for the journalist and documentary director Ada Ushpiz. I was inspired by her and realized that filmmaking is a spiritual kind of art where stories serve as metaphor and describe a mental state. That touched me.

W&H: What’s the best advice you’ve received?

AWD: The best advice I’ve got was from another woman film director who is a friend of mine. She warned me about a feminine tendency: over-identification and sympathy with the emotions of people around us. While working on a film set this can be a mental disaster.

A set is already a high-pressure human encounter in which everyone who is involved is being affected. As a director, I need to understand and respect that without trying to solve and arrange everything myself, leading to more mental pressure for myself.

I’ve learned to depend on the people who work with me on set — they know how to cope with problems themselves.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

AWD:  Be loyal to your inner voice. Even if there’ll be mistakes, at least you will know that those are your mistakes.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

AWD: Andrea Arnold’s films. She creates films which are sincere and devoid of sentimentality, centered on complex and sympathetic female characters.

W&H: Hollywood and the global film industry are in the midst of undergoing a major transformation. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

AWD: One of the questions that has occupied me from a young age, and especially today as a mother to a three-year-old child, is how did we lose or give up our ability as women to influence the way humanity shapes itself? The #MeToo movement, in my eyes, marks the reawakening of radical feminism, in which we internalize that we are still living under deep social oppression and that we have a long way to go to achieve substantive equality between the sexes.