The Village Next to Paradise

• Mo Harawe
• 132 min
• Austria, France, Germany, Somalia
• 2024
• Fiction

Somalia’s first film to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival is a powerful and deeply moving breakthrough about daring to believe in a brighter future.

In a remote Somali village, gravedigger and handyman Mamargade struggles to make ends meet while caring for his son and his divorced sister. Their lives are shaped by conflict, the looming threat of drone attacks, and the constant struggle to make a living, but also by resilience and the courage to hope for a better future.. It might involve the dream of sending a child to boarding school in the city—despite the constant lack of money and the child’s resistance—or the courage to start a small business as a seamstress. Tender, cinematic, and very well acted, the film explores dreams, family relationships, and living day by day, all beneath the blazing desert sun as the country's political situation creeps ever closer to everyday life.


-

• Drama
• Familj
• Landsbygd
• Motstånd