Dreams play a pivotal role in “The Village Next to Paradise.” One of the three main characters in writer-director Mo Harawe’s poignant debut, a pre-teen boy named Cigaal (Ahmed Mohamud Saleban), has a compulsion to share his dreams with anyone who’s willing to listen. Cigaal longs for a land full of sweets, a place he sees in his sleep. The central threesome each have modest dreams: a small shop, a steady job and schooling. Life is hard in their part of Somalia, and they just want it to become a little easier.
It’s not much to ask for, and the humble ambition of the story’s characters reflects the filmmaker’s steady hand and patient vision. Harawe’s assured and confident debut, the first Somali feature ever selected for Cannes, draws on a small canvas but manages to wring authentic emotions and tell a complete narrative. A...
It’s not much to ask for, and the humble ambition of the story’s characters reflects the filmmaker’s steady hand and patient vision. Harawe’s assured and confident debut, the first Somali feature ever selected for Cannes, draws on a small canvas but manages to wring authentic emotions and tell a complete narrative. A...
- 5/30/2024
- by Murtada Elfadl
- Variety Film + TV
Ioncinema.com’s Chief Film Critic Nicholas Bell reviewed the entire competition and more. Here is a comprehensive guide to all the feature films across all sections, including logged reviews and forthcoming ones. Though Cannes might be over, we still have unpublished reviews that will be released over the next month.
In Competition:
All We Imagine as Light – [Review]
Anora – [Review]
The Apprentice – [Review]
Beating Hearts – [Review]
Bird – [Review]
Caught by the Tides – [Review]
Emilia Pérez – [Review]
The Girl with the Needle – [Review]
Grand Tour – [Review]
Kinds of Kindness – [Review]
Limonov: The Ballad – [Review]
Marcello Mio – [Review]
Megalopolis – [Review]
The Most Precious of Cargoes – [Review]
Motel Destino – [Review]
Oh, Canada – [Review]
Parthenope – [Review]
The Seed of the Sacred Fig – [Review]
The Shrouds – [Review]
The Substance – [Review]
Three Kilometres to the End of the World – [Review]
Wild Diamond – [Review]
Un Certain Regard:
Armand
Black Dog
The Damned – [Review]
Dog on Trial
Flow
Holy Cow – [Review]
The Kingdom
My Sunshine
Niki
Norah
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Santosh
September Says
The Shameless
The Story of Souleymane...
In Competition:
All We Imagine as Light – [Review]
Anora – [Review]
The Apprentice – [Review]
Beating Hearts – [Review]
Bird – [Review]
Caught by the Tides – [Review]
Emilia Pérez – [Review]
The Girl with the Needle – [Review]
Grand Tour – [Review]
Kinds of Kindness – [Review]
Limonov: The Ballad – [Review]
Marcello Mio – [Review]
Megalopolis – [Review]
The Most Precious of Cargoes – [Review]
Motel Destino – [Review]
Oh, Canada – [Review]
Parthenope – [Review]
The Seed of the Sacred Fig – [Review]
The Shrouds – [Review]
The Substance – [Review]
Three Kilometres to the End of the World – [Review]
Wild Diamond – [Review]
Un Certain Regard:
Armand
Black Dog
The Damned – [Review]
Dog on Trial
Flow
Holy Cow – [Review]
The Kingdom
My Sunshine
Niki
Norah
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Santosh
September Says
The Shameless
The Story of Souleymane...
- 5/28/2024
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Mo Harawe’s debut feature The Village Next to Paradise is a haunting offering. The film, which premiered at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section and is the first Somali film to ever screen on the Croisette, presents a compelling narrative of one family’s survival in a sleepy Somali town. But it’s the devastating backdrop against which their drama plays out that lingers long after the credits roll.
The siren wails of drones soundtrack each scene of Harawe’s film, which opens with footage of a real-life report of a United States drone strike on Somalia. Since the U.S. began using drones in the East African country in the early 2000s, Somalis have suffered at the hands of an enveloping and ravenous counterterrorism operation. According to data from the New America foundation, there have been more than 300 documented uses of drones resulting in hundreds of known civilian deaths.
The siren wails of drones soundtrack each scene of Harawe’s film, which opens with footage of a real-life report of a United States drone strike on Somalia. Since the U.S. began using drones in the East African country in the early 2000s, Somalis have suffered at the hands of an enveloping and ravenous counterterrorism operation. According to data from the New America foundation, there have been more than 300 documented uses of drones resulting in hundreds of known civilian deaths.
- 5/23/2024
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mo Harawe makes history this Cannes Film Festival with debut feature The Village Next To Paradise, which is world premiering in Un Certain Regard as the first Somalian title to make it into Official Selection across the festival’s 77 editions.
Born in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, Harawe moved to Austria to study film when he was 18 years old.
The Village Next to Paradise follows hard-hitting shorts Life on the Horn, about toxic waste landing on the Somali coast, and Will My Parents Come to See Me, about a young prison inmate.
Set in a ramshackle village on the Somali coast, the drama follows a single father as he struggles with the challenges of daily life, in order to offer to his young son, Cigaal, a better future.
They are joined in their home by Araweelo, who is in the process of divorcing. Together they navigate between their different aspirations...
Born in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, Harawe moved to Austria to study film when he was 18 years old.
The Village Next to Paradise follows hard-hitting shorts Life on the Horn, about toxic waste landing on the Somali coast, and Will My Parents Come to See Me, about a young prison inmate.
Set in a ramshackle village on the Somali coast, the drama follows a single father as he struggles with the challenges of daily life, in order to offer to his young son, Cigaal, a better future.
They are joined in their home by Araweelo, who is in the process of divorcing. Together they navigate between their different aspirations...
- 5/19/2024
- by Hannah Abraham
- Deadline Film + TV
Roger Frappier, one of the Bafta-winning producers of Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog, is in Cannes talking to potential partners about a feature adaptation of Canadian novel The Orange Grove.
Rising Arab filmmaker Murad Abu Eisheh is set to write and direct, and has joined Frappier in Cannes this week to discuss the project with financiers, actors, distributors and sales agents ahead of a planned shoot in 2025.
The story is based on the 2013 novel by Larry Tremblay and centres on a Middle Eastern theatre understudy whose chance to go on stage triggers memories of his war-torn childhood...
Rising Arab filmmaker Murad Abu Eisheh is set to write and direct, and has joined Frappier in Cannes this week to discuss the project with financiers, actors, distributors and sales agents ahead of a planned shoot in 2025.
The story is based on the 2013 novel by Larry Tremblay and centres on a Middle Eastern theatre understudy whose chance to go on stage triggers memories of his war-torn childhood...
- 5/19/2024
- ScreenDaily
Cairo-based Mad Distribution has acquired Jonathan Millet’s Critics’ Week opener Ghost Trail from mk2 Films, Somali director Mo Harawe’s Un Certain Regard drama The Village Next To Paradise from Totem Films and Anne-Marie Jacir’s upcoming All Before You for release in the Middle East and North Africa.
They are three of 30 titles secured by Mad Distribution for Mena territories, which also include Saif Hammash’s Palestinian short Deer’s Tooth, selected for La Cinef, and Rayane Mcirdi’s Algerian-French short After The Sun, which plays in Directors’ Fortnight.
The distribution arm of indie studio Mad Solutions plans...
They are three of 30 titles secured by Mad Distribution for Mena territories, which also include Saif Hammash’s Palestinian short Deer’s Tooth, selected for La Cinef, and Rayane Mcirdi’s Algerian-French short After The Sun, which plays in Directors’ Fortnight.
The distribution arm of indie studio Mad Solutions plans...
- 5/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Newly launched Dubai-based sales company Mad World has acquired worldwide rights to Egyptian director Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away, a tense African migrant drama shooting later this year in Egypt.
The title joins the inaugural slate of Mad World, as the Arab cinema-focused sales arm of Mena distributor and talent agency Mad Solutions gears up for its Cannes Market debut next week.
Aisha Can’t Fly Away revolves around the story of Aisha, a 26-year-old African immigrant caregiver residing in Ain-shams, a Cairo neighborhood with a large African migrant community.
The film explores the intricate dynamics of a world where the authorities’ indifference to the violent tensions between Egyptians and various African nationalities has allowed different gangs to seize control. Aisha’s situation turns sour after one of these gangs offers protection in exchange for a favor.
Egypt-based South Sudanese model Buliana Simona plays Aisha in...
The title joins the inaugural slate of Mad World, as the Arab cinema-focused sales arm of Mena distributor and talent agency Mad Solutions gears up for its Cannes Market debut next week.
Aisha Can’t Fly Away revolves around the story of Aisha, a 26-year-old African immigrant caregiver residing in Ain-shams, a Cairo neighborhood with a large African migrant community.
The film explores the intricate dynamics of a world where the authorities’ indifference to the violent tensions between Egyptians and various African nationalities has allowed different gangs to seize control. Aisha’s situation turns sour after one of these gangs offers protection in exchange for a favor.
Egypt-based South Sudanese model Buliana Simona plays Aisha in...
- 5/10/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: French sales and production company Totem Films has boarded international sales on Somalia-set drama The Village Next To Paradise by Mo Harawe.
The movie was among 14 titles announced for the Un Certain Section of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival at the event’s press conference in Paris on Thursday.
Set in a remote Somali village, the feature revolves around a newly assembled family as its members navigate between their different aspirations and the complex world surrounding them. Only love, trust and resilience will power them through their life paths.
“It is a privilege to afford to dream, let alone to become a filmmaker,” said Harawe. following the news. “The Village Next to Paradise serves as a metaphor for a country that holds the potential for paradise, were it not for the circumstances that make such a reality impossible.”
The film stars Somalian actors Ahmed Ali Farah,...
The movie was among 14 titles announced for the Un Certain Section of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival at the event’s press conference in Paris on Thursday.
Set in a remote Somali village, the feature revolves around a newly assembled family as its members navigate between their different aspirations and the complex world surrounding them. Only love, trust and resilience will power them through their life paths.
“It is a privilege to afford to dream, let alone to become a filmmaker,” said Harawe. following the news. “The Village Next to Paradise serves as a metaphor for a country that holds the potential for paradise, were it not for the circumstances that make such a reality impossible.”
The film stars Somalian actors Ahmed Ali Farah,...
- 4/11/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
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