The Village Next to Paradise
Feature Film, AT/FR/DE/SO 2024, Farbe, 133 min., OmeU
Diagonale 2025

Director, Script: Mo Harawe
Cast: Ahmed Ali Farah, Anab Ahmed Ibrahim, Ahmed Mohamud Saleban
Camera: Mostafa El Kashef
Editor: Joana Scrinzi
Location Sound: Willis Abuto
Production Design: Nuur Abdulkadir
Costumes: Sarah Ismail
Producers: Sabine Moser, Oliver Neumann, Jean Christophe Reymond, Nicole Gerhards, Mo Harawe
Production: FreibeuterFilm
Co-production: Kazak Productions (FR), NiKo Film (DE), Maanmaal ACC (SO)
Little Cigaal lives with his father and aunt in Paradise Village, a remote village in Somalia. When the school suddenly closes, he has to go to boarding school in the city. In Mo Harawe’s vivid feature debut, the three protagonists stoically defy the difficulties of their everyday lives in the impoverished civil-war-torn province. A tender family story and at the same time, a portrait of a country where a carefree life seems like a dream.