United by tragedy in rural Somalia, a widowed camel farmer and a young American must find common ground in this drama from Somali Canadian recording artist K’naan Warsame.
On a lonely farm in rural Somalia, the widowed Qalifo (Maan Youssouf Ahmed) and her college-age son Asad (Elmi Rashid Elmi) raise camels. Asad lives in the shadow of his late father’s violent reputation and bristles at Qalifo’s strict parenting, escaping to a nearby village whenever he can. And when Asad learns his girlfriend has been seeing another boy, the American visitor Liban (Hassan Najib), a confrontation is inevitable.
This is the first act of Mother Mother and, with it, Somali-Canadian writer-director K’naan Warsame — one of several musicians bringing films to this year’s Festival — lays out a tangled narrative of complicated lives, emotional choices, and hard-won understanding.
Beautifully shot by César Charlone, a regular collaborator of Fernando Meirelles, the film is simple but not simplistic, a moral drama that leads us into Qalifo’s very small world and shows us how much is going on there.
Co-stars Ahmed and Najib establish an uneasy relationship between two very different characters — neither of whom speaks the other’s language, nor particularly wants to be sharing space with them in the first place — while the situation also presses Qalifo to face some unpleasant realities.
What emerges is a tender and even delicate story about two very different people helping one another through a life-changing trauma, even if neither one will admit that’s what they’re doing.
ROBYN CITIZEN
Content advisory: mature themes, coarse language
Content advisory: mature themes, coarse language
Screenings
TIFF Lightbox 1
Scotiabank 11
Scotiabank 3
Scotiabank 7