The Gravedigger's Wife – Panel Talk and Afterparty

Mer Film, Films From the South, and Vega Scene have the pleasure of inviting you to a special screening of Somali Oscar nominee The Gravedigger's Wife, on Tuesday the 16th of November at 6:30pm. For full schedule and further details, please scroll down.

About the Film

Somalia’s first ever Oscar-nominated film! Guled makes a living as a gravedigger in Djibouti, and a normal day on the job for him consists of waiting outside the hospital gates for dead bodies to be sent out to be buried. Illness and death are far from abstract concepts to Guled, but when his wife Nasra becomes seriously ill his world is turned upside down. He needs to get the money to pay for her medical treatment, and waiting for others to die so he can bury them is simply too slow. He must think outside the box and step outside of his comfort zone in order to find a solution.

In addition to being one of a very few feature films with Somali as its main language, The Gravedigger’s Wife is memorable because of its almost hypnotic cinematography, and as a poetic film romance.

Finnish-Somali director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed wrote the first draft of the script for this film more than ten years ago. However, he was reluctant to let anyone else direct his story – so he spent the following years learning how to direct films, and production finally started in 2019. This debut feature premiered as part of the International Critics’ Week at Cannes, and has since been screened at Toronto International Film Festival.

Schedule

8:15pm: Join us in Nedre Foajé at Vega Scene for musical performances and a conversation about Somali storytelling with filmmaker Ibrahim Mursal, politician Marian Hussein, comedian Jonis Josef, and director of The Gravedigger's Wife, Khadar Ayderus Ahmed.

9pm: Doors open for an afterparty at Khartoum (Bernt Ankers gate 17). All welcome.