Skip to main content
Samia film image; woman holding up one arm

The true story of Somali Olympic athlete Samia Yusuf Omar makes for a compelling and emotional drama. Growing up in poverty in Mogadishu, Samia may have been born to run but she was also born a girl — and as Islamic fundamentalists grow more powerful in her country she is forced to train at night, in secret. Civil war breaks out and father is shot in the leg. Eventually, she decides she must flee Sudan for Europe to pursue her dream…

Adapting the Italian best seller Don’t Tell Me You’re Afraid, director Yasemin Şamdereli relays the story through some adept time-shuffling (the first time we see Samia run, she’s trying to escape people smugglers in the Libyan desert). Graced with a radiant performance from Ilham Mohamed Osman as the teenage heroine, the movie paints a vivid picture of life in a city menaced by armed militia.

A highly endearing portrait of a heroic fate… a luminous film which is accessible to all audiences.

Cineuropa

Director

Yasemin Şamdereli

Cast

Ilham Mohamed Osman, Kaltuma Mohamed Abdi, Fathia Mohamed Absie

Credits
Country of Origin

Italy/Germany/Belgium

Year

2024

Language

In Arabic, English and Somali with English subtitles

19+
102 min
Indyca, Rai Cinema, Neue Bioskop, Tarantula, Bim Produzione, Momento Film

Book Tickets

Friday August 08

1:30 pm
First Look Fridays Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Book Now

Sunday August 10

7:45 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Book Now

Monday August 11

2:30 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Book Now

Tuesday August 12

5:30 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Book Now

Wednesday August 13

4:30 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Book Now

Thursday August 14

5:15 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Book Now

First Look Fridays: $10 Tickets

Enjoy $10 tickets at this film’s first Friday matinee screening.

Credits

Executive Producer

Piergiuseppe “Beppe” Serra, Karim Cham, Michael Kölmel

Producer

Simone Catania, Dietmar Güntsche, Anja-Karina Richter, Michele Fornasero, Francesca Portalupi, Martin Rohé

Screenwriter

Yasemin Şamdereli, Nesrin Samdereli, Giuseppe Catozzella

Cinematography

Florian Berutti

Editor

Mechthild Barth

Production Design

Paola Bizzarri

Original Music

Rodrigo D’Erasmo

Also Playing

The China Syndrome

Dir. James L Bridges
122 min

Jane Fonda is a lightweight local news anchor sent to film a puff piece about clean, limitless energy at a nuclear power plant with cameraman Michael Douglas. As luck would have it, they witness chaos in the control room and an emergency shutdown.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light film image; painted reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows that combine to look like a flower

Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light

Dir. Paul Wagner
118 min

Drawing on her copious correspondence and the world's leading scholars, this is a definitive documentary on the life and work of "the mother of American Modernism."

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Julia

Dir. Fred Zinnemann
118 min

Fred Zinnemann's meticulous film is based on account by playwright Lillian Hellman of a wealthy childhood friend who turned her back on privilege to follow her ideals and to support victims of the Nazi regime in Germany prior to WWII.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

A Serious Man

Dir. Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
106 min

The Coen brothers' best movie is a painfully funny existentialist comedy about a physics professor, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlberg), benumbed but bewildered by his wife's announcement that she wants a divorce. That's only the start of his troubles.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre