DIRECTOR/SCREENPLAY: Khadar Ayderus Ahmed
PRODUCERS: Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff, Risto Nikkilä, Thanassis Karathanos, Martin Hammpel, Stéphane Parthenay, Robin Boespflug-Vonie
PRODUCTION CO: Oy Bufo Ab
PHOTOGRAPHY: Arttu Peltomaa
EDITOR: Sebastian Thümler
MUSIC: Andre Matthias
WITH: Omar Abdi (Guled), Yasmin Warsame (Nasra), Kadar Abdoul-Aziz Ibrahim (Mahad), Samaleh Ali Obsieh (Ali), Hamdi Ahmed Omar (Hassan), Awa Ali Nour (Zahra), Amina Ayanleh Omar (Nimco), (Mouhoubo Osman Eleyeh) (Anisa), Fardouza Moussa Egueh (Dr Yahya)

FESTIVALS: Cannes, Toronto, London

REVIEW

“Somali-born film-maker Khadar Ayderus Ahmed (who lives and works in Finland, the country he came to as a refugee in his teen years) has had a deserved festival success with this debut feature, set in Djibouti. It’s a gentle, humorous film in Africa’s quietist cinema tradition with grace notes of irony and wit.
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Guled (Omar Abdi) is a gravedigger, who lives with his wife Nasra (Yasmin Warsame) and young son Mahad (Kadar Abdoul-Aziz Ibrahim); he is in fact more like an itinerant labourer, hanging out with other gravediggers with their shovels over their shoulders, waiting for work; they occasionally even chase ambulances into the hospital forecourt, eagerly clustering round as the poor patient is carted out, hoping for the worst. But when his wife is diagnosed with a serious kidney illness, needing an emergency operation costing $5,000, Guled is struck with a sickening realisation, never explicitly spelled out, as to whose grave he might be digging next. The only conceivable way of getting the money is to trek back to his family in his remote home village, whom he deserted to run away with Nasra in the first place, to claim back his ‘share’ of the family goat herd and somehow get it back to the big city to sell.”

— Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

New Plymouth     
Wednesday, 02 August, 6.00pm

​Nelson     
Tuesday, 08 August, 6.00pm

​Palmerston North     
Wednesday, 16 August, 6.00pm

Carterton     
Friday, 25 August, 7.00pm

Queenstown     
Tuesday, 05 September, 8.15pm

​Auckland     
Monday, 18 September, 6.15pm

Hamilton     
Monday, 25 September, 6.30pm

Wellington     
Monday, 02 October, 6.15pm

Whanganui     
Monday, 16 October, 7.00pm
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Tauranga  
Tuesday, 24 October, 6.00pm

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