A cineforum podcast hosted by two third-culture women, Gloria Zingales and Edelawit Hussien, who discuss curated films from across the world.

Merkato means marketplace in both Italian and Amharic, our hosts mother tongues. Merkato Radio is thus meant to illicit the eclectic colors, sounds, cultures and bustling life of a marketplace. It is the symbiotic mixture of many cultures and ideas across time.

Merkato strives to provide a voice for the current generation of multi-cultural, multi-lingual, open-minded, global thinkers and creators. With a multitude of oversaturated streaming services, it can be hard to find films that exist outside the algorithm and also worth watching. Not only is Merkato an exchange of well-informed perspectives and ideas it also acts as a curator of incredible contemporary films being released across the world and in various streaming services.

Episode 1 | Cuties, PEN15 and Coming-of-Age on Screen and on THE Scr33n

In Merkato Radio’s first ever episode, Edelawit and Gloria discuss Maïmouna Doucouré’s controversial film Cuties alongside Hulu’s cringe comedy masterpiece PEN15 (written by Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle and Sam Zvibleman) as examples of girls coming-of-age on the silver screen… and on the omnipresent screen of the internet!

Episode 2 | L’Atlantique, Terraferma and The Refugee Crisis

Edelawit and Gloria discuss two totally different, at times one is lowkey problematic, ways of storytelling within the modern day refugee crisis. French – Senegalese Mati Diop’s feature début L’Atlantique and Italian director Emanuele Crialese’s Terraferma lead our co-hosts to brainstorm a barometer for films depicting suffering… potentially to be called the Lampedusa Test?

Episode 3 | The Salesman, Irreversible and Male Revenge

You might’ve never guessed it but the beloved Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman and the infamous Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible are kind of the same story told from completely opposing cultural and cinematic perspectives. In this episode Edelawit and Gloria ask if male revenge is a dish best served cold? Or dare they say…. not served at all?

Episode 4 | La Moustache, Gaslight and The Ancient Art of Gaslighting!!!

In this episode Gloria and Edelawit delve into the origins of the elusive and ubiquitous “gaslighting”, a term coined by the 1940 British film Gaslight. Through French novelist and filmmaker Emanuel Carrère’s La Moustache and Thorold Dickinson’s Gaslight, our co-hosts discuss what the term means and how it manifests in the character’s relationships as well as in modern ones. They unpack why the (at times) overused word is even a thing… that we do to each other… Why are we like this?

Episode 5 | In the Mood for Love, The Lunchbox and Food as a Love Language

To wind down Season 1, Gloria and Edelawit talk serendipity, synchronicity, romance and… food. Often noted as one of the most romantic films of all time, Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love paired with Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox lead our cohosts to confront a difficult truth: if the universe conspires to have you meet someone… you better not let that chance slip away.