The Village Next To Paradise
In his debut feature, the first Somali film ever at the Cannes Film Festival, Mo Harawe portrays a family trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Single father Mamargade lives in Paradise – a rural village in the Somali desert under the constant threat of American drone strikes – together with his gifted son Cigaal and his divorced sister Araweelo. To support his family, humble Mamargade does what his sister Araweelo calls ‘social work’ – driving, digging graves, repairing vehicles. But when death comes often from the sky, it is not uncommon for people to simply disappear. After Cigaal’s instructor stops showing up, Mamargade is encouraged to enrol him in a nearby boarding school, against Cigaal’s wishes.
Araweelo dreams of independence by opening up a shop where she can make and sell clothes. But when she learns she cannot get a loan as an unmarried woman, she must hatch a new plan to make her aspirations come true.
In what emerges as a timeless tale about love, sacrifice, and dedication, director Mo Harawe provides political context for an underappreciated and often discredited nation. Lucid cinematography by Mostafa El Kashef captures the majesty of the Horn of Africa’s vast plains, highlands, and shorelines, lit carefully under the full force of the desert sun, while the interaction between the characters subtly shows the tough, sometimes hopeless life in a conflict zone, without falling into melodrama.