The Village Next to Paradise
In the first Somali film ever selected for the Cannes Film Festival, a villager and his sister are just trying to make ends meet and send his son off to boarding school. But in a world defined by chaos, unease, and civil unrest, sometimes sacrifice is the only answer.
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Monday, May 19, 2025
- Limited Availability
- On Standby
- Matinee
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
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- On Standby
- Matinee
Mamargade spends his days tending to a dusty public restroom on the edge of a Somali village, scraping together a modest life for himself and his spirited young son, Cigaal. With little more than a mop and quiet determination, he tries to offer stability in a place where opportunity comes in narrow windows—often opened by leaving. When his sister pursues a high-risk plan to migrate abroad, the family’s fragile balance begins to shift, forcing Mamargade to reconsider what it means to stay behind.
With a photographer’s eye and a patient rhythm, Somali director Mo Harawe builds a tactile sense of place where routine tasks—filling water jugs, sweeping sand, waiting—carry the weight of survival and small acts of hope. The film is steeped in lived-in detail, inviting viewers to see beyond headlines and stereotypes of the Horn of Africa.
The Village Next to Paradise finds quiet power in what its characters are willing to carry for one another. In a landscape shaped by absence—of resources, of certainty—Harawe captures the emotional texture of those who stay behind, and those who leave, out of love. Without grand declarations or sweeping drama, drawing strength from the everyday sacrifices that tether families together, even as geography threatens to pull them apart.
—Nancy Pappas
- Director: Mo Harawe
- Principal Cast: Ahmed Ali Farah, Anab Ahmed Ibrahim, Ahmed Mohamud Saleban
- Country: Somalia, Austria, France, Germany
- Year: 2024
- Running Time: 133 min.
- Producer: Sabine Moser, Oliver Neumann
- Screenplay: Mo Harawe
- Cinematographers: Mostafa El Kashef
- Editors: Joana Scrinzi
- Website: https://www.totem-films.com/films/the-village-next-to-paradise/
- Awards: Chicago International Film Festival 2024 (New Directors Award), Cork International Film Festival 2024 (Best Film), Viennale 2024 (Best Austrian Film), Sarajevo Film Festival 2024 (Best Actress), Marrakech International Film Festival 2024 (Best Feature Film)
- Filmography: Debut Feature Film
- Language: Somali
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- Format: DCP
- International Sales: Totem Films