Born and raised in Ethiopia, Leul Shoaferaw's interest in film comes from watching French New Wave films and the urge to tell the untold stories of Ethiopia through a visual medium. His narrative projects often feature characters that are trapped in vicious circle, and the plots often focus on the characters' constant struggle to find an inherent value in their existence. Visual and thematic inspirations come from cultural context of Ethiopia, and the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, David Lynch and Werner Herzog.