Directed by Miguel Llansó

Official Selection 2015 Rotterdam Film Festival.

An Ethiopian post-apocalyptic surreal sci-fi feature length film.

CRUMBS is set against the background of spectacular post-apocalyptic Ethiopian landscapes, where the film finds a strange-looking scrap collector, Gagano (played by the charismatic Daniel Tadesse). Alternately gripped by daydreams and constant fears, the diminutive Gagano has had enough of collecting the priceless crumbs of decayed civilization, including the most valuable: merchandise from Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan. When a spaceship that has been hovering high in the sky for years starts showing signs of activity, Gagano has to overcome his fears — as well as a witch, Santa Claus and second-generation Nazis — to discover things aren't quite the way he thought.

Decades after the apocalypse and after extraterrestrial life had been discovered, the few inhabitants left in a hostile earth have struggled to survive by squatting and rummaging to make ends meet. For many years an alien spaceship has hovered in the skies, undisturbed and dormant, slowly rusting away. Tired of picking up the crumbs of gone-by civilizations, Gagano dreams his life away when not living in a state of perpetual fear. When the spaceship in the sky begins to turn on and after a series of freak incidents in the bowling alley that Gagano and Selam call home, our miniature sized hero will be forced to embark on a surreal epic journey that will lead him through the post apocalyptic Ethiopian landscape. As he confronts himself, his fears as well as witches, Santa Claus and second generation Nazis he will find himself only to discover that the memories that brought him on his journey and that he always thought he had were not really as he had been recalling them.



Director´s Notes:

In October 2013 my audio recorder captured the following words during an interview to the first Ethiopian graduate in nuclear engineering — the elderly professor Seifu Yohannes — now Emeritus Physics Professor in the University of Harar.

"All your dreams of wealth and unlimited power, all your dreams of disproportionate ambition; the satisfaction of feeling analogous to the gods, all your sexual impulses which you deem infinite; all these pharaonic dreams will be reduced to a series of cheap plastic figurines floating in the stratosphere once everything has finally exploded.

The American dream will soon enough end up devastating you. Then you will return to your village with your tail between your legs. And you will wish that your old boyfriend or girlfriend — whose breath always reeked of garlic — will once again cover you in kisses and eternally care for your welfare."

When I finished transcribing these words, CRUMBS was born.

Cast and Crew
Directed by Miguel Llansó
Writing Credits Miguel Llansó
Cast
(In order of appearance)
Daniel Tadesse — Candy "Gagano"
Quino Piñero — Nazi
Selam Tesfaye — Sayat
Mengistu Berhanu — Shop Owner
Getu Fixa — Horse Rider
Nebeyu Bekele — Horse Rider 2
Shitay Abreha — Witch
Tsegaye Abegaz — Santa Claus
Girma Gebrehiwot — The Man who Listens
Mister Z — Bar Tender
Shambel Basha Getachew — Warrior
G/Silasse Gelaw — Blind Old Man
Produced by
Mesereta Argaw — co-producer
Sergio Uguet de Resayre — executive producer
Yohannes Feleke — line producer
Miguel Llansó — producer
Quino Piñero — associate producer (as Joaquín Piñero)
Israel Seoane — associate producer
Daniel Taye Workou co-producer
Music by Atomizador
Cinematography by Israel Seoane
Film Editing by Velasco Broca
Sound Department
Alberto Carlassare — sound re-recording mixer
Quino Piñero — post-production sound / sound recordist
Visual Effects
Laszlo Debrabandere — visual effects artist: digital compositor
Joaquín Jordán — visual effects supervisor
Javier Regueiro — visual effects artist: digital compositor Editorial Department
Andrés de la Cruz — on-line editor