Ethiopia protests over 'biased' Hollywood film

The Ethiopian government has complained that an American movie starring Angelina Jolie being filmed in Namibia gives a biased portrayal of its country.

Ethiopia lodged a complaint with the Namibian government over the film, Beyond Borders, saying that it only portrayed the 1984 drought and mass starvation, and none of the progress made since then.

The film is a drama in which Jolie falls in love with a doctor who travels to Cambodia, Chechnya and Ethiopia to help war victims.

A third of the film is being shot in Namibia instead of Ethiopia because during the planning stage, Ethiopia was at war with neighbouring Eritrea.

Tegenaw Goshu, a spokesman for the Ethiopian embassy in South Africa, said the film producers had not been willing to work with organisations in Ethiopia that would have helped put the country's story in context. "The portrayal of negative images about Ethiopia does not help the whole of Africa. The media should strive to include positive images of our continent," Mr Goshu said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Namibian government.

Jolie, who serves as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said the script was one of the best she had ever seen.