THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE   

Mo Harawe   
Somalia/Austria/France/Germany 2024 | Original Version with English Subtitles | 133 min
In the presence of the director

TUE 12 NOV
19:30 ARSENAL
OPENING

As a single father in a remote village in Somalia, Mamargade struggles with the challenges of everyday life. His sister Araweelo is looking for a new home with him after her divorce. Cigaal, his son, sometimes comes up short in the turbulence of the fragile family. Mamargade needs money, his income as a self-employed gravedigger is barely enough. Araweelo, meanwhile, is looking for a way to realize her dream of owning her own tailoring business. Despite having different goals, the patchwork family finds its own way through love, trust and confidence.

The atmospherically dense family drama was the first Somali film ever to celebrate its international premiere in the competition of the “Un Certain Regard” section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The director will be present at the screening.

MO HARAWE (*1992) is a Somali-Austrian screenwriter and director who was born in Mogadishu. He studied Visual Communication and Film at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. His debut feature THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE follows his acclaimed short films LIFE ON THE HORN (2022), which received an honorable mention at the Locarno International Film Festival, while WILL MY PARENTS COME TO SEE ME (2022) was nominated for the European Film Award and won the Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand as well as the German LOLA and the Austrian Film Award for Best Short Film in 2023. THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE was awarded the Atlas Workshops Prize at the Festival International du Film Marrakech.

SPECIAL

Spoken Word Performance:  »Believe«

Die Performance von Philipp Khabo Koepsell ist eine lyrische Sammlung von dynamischen Spoken Word-Texten in englischer Sprache, passend zum Festival-Fokus »Believe«. Die Texte gehen der Frage nach, welchen Glaubensgrundsätzen wir folgen, um unsere Identität zu konstruieren und unsere Realität zu begreifen, welchen Irrglauben wir unterliegen und welche Perspektivwechsel uns einen Blick in eine afrofuturistische Zukunft erlauben.

PHILIPP KHABO KOEPSELL performance is a lyrical collection of dynamic spoken word texts in English, in keeping with the festival focus “Believe”. The texts explore the question of which principles of belief we follow in order to construct our identity and understand our reality, which misconceptions we are subject to and which changes of perspective allow us a glimpse into an Afrofuturistic future.