Movies & TV Shows from Somalia

In the heart of rural Somalia, widowed mother Qalifo and her son, Asad, labor as camel herders. However, Asad has his heart set on a life in town with Ifrah, the girl of his dreams. When a young American visitor declares his love for Ifrah, the rivalry leads to murder, and Qalifo weighs in with a shocking choice that transforms all of their lives.

When a high school basketball star is wrongfully convicted of a crime in a suburban neighborhood, his family’s pursuit of a better life is shattered. Ibtisam Farah, a high achieving Somali youth worker is forced to take on the case, which catapults her into a world of crime and forces her to connect with a community she is estranged from. Based on the short film of the same name.

In a Somali village, Barni, a mysterious hitwoman in her fifties, dramatically resurfaces years after vanishing without a trace. There, she's intent on getting revenge on vicious gangster Ardo, who rules the village with an iron fist.

When men take up arms to go against their brothers, women have to take up gravediggers’ shovels. Ceebla (Fardouza Moussa Egueh, who we also saw in Gravedigger’s Wife), refuses to bargain for the cost of her labour. When her grave finally finds a taker, the revenue logic takes an unexpected twist. The Earth Has Ears is a civil war film without gunfire. It shows how the absurdity of war also turns everyday life at the home front irrational. / MSFF

Young Alifa looks up at the somali sky. She thinks about her daily life as a shepherdess. She knows that the day that will change her life forever is about to come.

Recording a 24-hour period throughout every country in the world, we explore a greater diversity of perspectives than ever seen before on screen. We follow characters and events that evolve throughout the day, interspersed with expansive global montages that explore the progression of life from birth, to death, to birth again. In the end, despite unprecedented challenges and tragedies throughout the world, we are reminded that every day we are alive there is hope and a choice to see a better future together. Founded in 2008, it set out to explore our planet's identity and challenges in an attempt to answer the question: Who are we?

The sequel to the 2021 film Guled & Nasra. Plot TBA.

In a windy Somali village, a newly assembled family must navigate between their different aspirations and the complex world surrounding them. Love, trust and resilience will power them through their life paths.

In one of the world's largest and oldest refugee camps, Dadaab, the inhabitans survive by watching films and dreaming. The refugees cannot leave the camp, but they let their minds escape the harsh reality: by going to the simple cinema hall run by Abdikafi Mohamed, the film's protagonist.

A look into a young Somali woman who is having difficulties speaking her mother tongue. Her father narrates the story Cigaal and the Lion Stump with the hope to persuade her to never give up on her Somali heritage.

Qabyo 2 is the quintessential example of the sequel being better than the original. Written and directed by, and starring, a legendary cast of multi-hyphenated Somali artists, this cult classic combined unconventional filmmaking techniques, kinetic editing and a fascinating interpretation of mise en scène that’s since become an easily digestible visual grammar for its intended audience. This bombastic socio-comic musical about diaspora and assimilation in America ushered in a new era of national cinema that followed the Somali cinematic tradition’s steadfast belief in the ‘by us, for us’ philosophy.

A delightful mockumentary that underscores the universality of childhood and imagination, Warya originally screened at the Africa Film Festival Australia.

A young man crosses the desert seeking a better life, but isolation, fading memories, and silence force him to confront his past, his pain-and the truth about himself.

Local film from Djibouti.

Centering on the revolutionary Dervish State and its influential leader, Muhammad Abdullah Hassan (the "Mad Mullah") is an epic on the grandest scale. The film follows Hassan's life from his roots as a humble mullah to a revolutionary anti-colonial leader that fought off the British Empire for more than two decades.

Amidst the lingering shadows of the Somali civil war, Qaali, an asthmatic single mother of seven, braves the slums of Kampala, striving daily in a restaurant to shield her family from the specters of their past.

A talented musician yearns to pursue his passion for music, much to the disappointment of his father, who values practicality over artistic aspirations.