The Medallion 2023 Short Film by Ruth Hunduma

Discover ‘The Medallion’ (2023), Ruth Hunduma’s powerful documentary short film. Uncover its compelling history & untold stories.

🪙 The Medallion (2023) — Documentary Short Film by Ruth Hunduma

“Some heirlooms are made of gold. Others are made of survival.”

In just 19 minutes, Ruth Hunduma transforms a single piece of jewelry — a medallion etched with the regal profile of Nefertiti — into a vessel for memory, trauma, and hope. This short documentary is both a personal family archive and a window into one of the least‑acknowledged atrocities of the 20th century: Ethiopia’s Red Terror.

🧭 Overview

Genre: Documentary / Short / Historical Memory
Director & Writer: Ruth Hunduma 🎬✏️
Runtime: ~19 minutes
Country: Ethiopia 🇪🇹 / UK 🇬🇧
Language: English (with archival Amharic)
Awards: 🏆 Multiple festival wins & nominations
Notable Screenings: Featured by The New Yorker

Watch full short:

📖 Story in Brief

The film begins with Ruth recalling the day her mother passed down the medallion — a gleaming gold pendant bearing Nefertiti’s face 👑. It wasn’t just a family treasure; it was a survival talisman.

Her mother’s story unfolds:

📚 Childhood Interrupted: As a middle‑schooler, she was seized by the Derg communist regime during the late 1970s.
🚫 Years in Captivity: She grew up in a prison camp, separated from her family, enduring the brutality of the Red Terror — a period when tens of thousands were executed, and countless others disappeared.
🏃‍♀️ Escape & Freedom: Upon escaping, she carried the medallion as a symbol of resilience, beauty, and the will to live.
🤝 Passing the Torch: She gave it to Ruth, not as decoration, but as a reminder — to keep their family’s story alive and to pass it on to future generations.

🎨 Creative DNA & Style

Intergenerational Dialogue: The film structured as a conversation between mother and daughter, blending oral history with visual poetry.
Archival Power: Grainy footage and photographs from the Red Terror years are intercut with present‑day Ethiopia — a land still scarred by conflict yet rich in culture.
Symbolic Centerpiece: The medallion itself becomes a narrative anchor, appearing in close‑ups that feel almost devotional.
Tone: A balance of tenderness, grief, and quiet defiance.

🌟 Themes & Resonance

Memory as Resistance: In a world where some histories erased, telling the story becomes an act of defiance.
The Weight of Inheritance: Trauma doesn’t vanish; it travels through generations, reshaping identity.
Beauty Amid Brutality: Nefertiti’s face — a symbol of elegance — stands against the ugliness of political violence.
Silence & Visibility: The Red Terror remains under‑reported in Western media; the film insists on its place in global memory.

✅ Pros & ❌ Cons

Pros

🎯 Deeply personal lens makes history feel immediate.
🎨 Elegant visual storytelling with symbolic imagery.
🏛️ Educational impact on an overlooked genocide.

Cons

⏳ Short runtime leaves you wanting more historical context.
🌀 Poetic interludes may slow the urgency for some viewers.

💡 Humanized Takeaway

The Medallion 2023 short film is more than a documentary — it’s a hand‑to‑hand passing of memory. Ruth Hunduma doesn’t just preserve her mother’s story; she reframes it as a living inheritance, one that demands to carried forward. The medallion gleams not because it’s gold, but because it has survived.