Ethiopia’s state-backed bid to drive industrialization and transform its economy over the last couple of decades has had plenty of support from Chinese investors and operators to create jobs and opportunities for a rapidly growing population.  And, while that support has been welcomed, it’s been rare for policymakers or civil society to take a step back and examine its impact on everything from local work culture to land rights.

Via Deadline, a report on a new documentary which premiered at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival last week that shines a light on the complexities of Chinese investment in the Horn of Africa nation. “Made in Ethiopia” focuses on the Eastern Industrial Park, about 100 kilometers outside the capital Addis Ababa, and shows the driving forces behind this industrialization approach. It also highlights the friction caused by the two different work cultures.

Ethiopia’s plan toward economic development via industrial parks has hit many bumps along the way; the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in the northern Tigray region in 2022, and several armed groups that have created security risks and tanked investor confidence. Other roadblocks to success have been labor wage issues, as the government tries to attract textile and garment manufacturers under an enabling environment and “cheap labor.”

The idea of presenting multiple perspectives was always central to the film, says director Max Duncan. Both he and his co-director Xinyan Yu, who is from China, worked as journalists for many years before starting the four-year project.

“It says a lot about the Ethiopian government; the importance that they put on the promotion of Ethiopia as an industrialized nation versus these tropes about poverty and war,” said Duncan speaking on the continued access the filmmakers were granted over four years of filming.