‘an open field’ Is a Deeply Personal Story of Loss, Grief and Compassion (Exclusive Netflix Trailer)

The award-winning short film, directed by Teboho Edkins and produced by his father, dives into the mourning following the death of the filmmaker’s brother in a Boeing airplane crash over Ethiopia.

In March 2019, a Boeing 737 MAX crashed in Ethiopia just six minutes after taking off from the airport in the country’s capital, Addis Ababa. It had 157 people on board, and all of them died.

Among them was Max Thabiso Edkins. His older brother Teboho Edkins decided to make a film about the experience of grief and mourning that his family and the local community went through.

The result is the very personal 38-minute short film an open field, directed by Edkins and produced by his father, Don Edkins, and Carine Chichkowsky. The film is now going global, hitting Netflix on Dec. 1, about a year after its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2025, where it won the best short documentary award.

The title of the movie becomes clear when you watch it. In an open field, the filmmaker finds out that dozens of nearby villagers immediately converged on the crash site to help. Some even stood vigil for a month to protect and preserve the area. Years later, they continue to mourn alongside family members who visit the site, including Edkins and his father, also making the film a story about collective grief and compassion.

“Boeing’s widely criticized response to the crash stands in sharp contrast to the community’s enduring compassion,” highlights a synopsis. “Both a personal essay on loss and an exploration of the potential healing power of collective mourning, Edkins’s film is a quiet testament to humanity – moments of warmth, resolve, grief, fear, patience, and simple acts of kindness.”

Indeed, the film feels like a cinematic attempt to connect with a late brother and son’s spirit. In that sense, an open field is a family film. And it may be set in a far-away place for many viewers, but it transcends borders, given that the plane’s passengers came from more than 30 countries and that anyone who has lost a loved one has faced the burden of that loss.

an open field is a South Africa-France-Germany production by Day Zero Film and Video Productions in South Africa, Day Zero Films UG in Germany and Survivance in France. The cinematographer is Jide Akinleminu, the editor is Anne Fabini. The film, shot in color and black-and-white, features dialogue in both English and Amharic.

“This is a delicate and personal work and about something fundamental to being human,” says director Teboho Edkins. “I hope that the film can find its way to as many people as possible, and that something in it might resonate with them. Having Netflix bring the film to its global audiences is very meaningful to me, and I’m grateful for their support as it makes its way out into the world.”

THR can now exclusively premiere a trailer for an open field ahead of its Netflix debut.