Getting to the Olympics is always a Herculean challenge, but getting to the Olympics with no formal training while your country is in the midst of a civil war is something else entirely. The real-life story of Somali sprinter Samia Yusuf Omar (played by Ilham Mohamed Osman) makes for compelling and empathetic drama here. Despite many setbacks and personal tragedy, this young woman receives support from family and loved ones and eventually finds herself on the biggest stage in the world of sports, the Beijing Olympics 2008, at the age of just 17. Her success, however, draws unwanted attention from the powers that be…
Adapting the Italian best seller Don’t Tell Me You’re Afraid, director Yasemin Şamdereli tells Samia’s story through a delicate mixture of colour, darkness, joy, and adversity. The film recounts the inspirational story of a young girl whose example extends the rights of women around the world, offering moments of hope even amidst the brutality of war.
Community Partner
Ilham Mohamed Osman, Kaltuma Mohamed Abdi, Fathia Mohamed Absie
Italy/Germany/Belgium
2024
In Arabic, English and Somali with English subtitles
At International Village
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
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
Yasemin Şamdereli
Yasemin Şamdereli is a German actress, screenwriter, and director best known for her film Almanya: Welcome to Germany (2011). Her latest film, Samia, was made with the collaboration of Deka Mohamed Osman and had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.
Filmography: Almanya: Welcome to Germany (2011); Together Forever – Secrets of 50+ Years of Marriage (2018);
Photo by dekamohamedosman
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The American Friend
Wim Wenders' take on Patricia Highsmith's Ripley's Game is the real deal, an authentic mittel-European neo-noir, with Dennis Hopper as the original American psycho, Tom Ripley. This Film Studies screening is introduced by Patricia Gruben.
Turner & Constable
Filmed as a supplement to a blockbuster exhibition at Tate Britain happening right now, this doc in the popular Exhibition on Screen series allows us to view these competitive, complementary English landscape artists side by side.
The President's Cake
Nine year old Lamia and her friend Saeed venture into the city to scrounge ingredients for a cake to celebrate Sadaam Hussein's birthday — a quest fraught with real peril in precarious times. Winner, Camera d'Or, Cannes.