By Anthony D'Alessandro Editorial Director/Box Office Editor Kasi Lemmons will adapt and direct Maaza Mengiste’s historical fiction novel The Shadow King about the Ethiopian women soldiers, left out of the historical record, who went to battle against Mussolini’s invading army in 1935 Ethiopia.
Atlas Entertainment is producing. The novel follows, Aster, the wife of a commander in Haile Selassie’s overwhelmed army, and her household servant Hirut, who long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead.
Together they offer a plan to maintain morale among Ethiopians, eventually becoming warriors and inspiring other women to take up arms against the Italians.
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