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

Samia

Panorama

This event has passed

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

 

 

Director
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

Film Contact
Links
18+

At International Village

19+

At Fifth Avenue

102 min
Award Winners Black Cinema Drama Human Rights & Social Justice Women Directors
Indyca, Rai Cinema, Neue Bioskop, Tarantula, Bim Produzione, Momento Film

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

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 headshot; Samia director

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

To a Land Unknown

Dir. Mahdi Fleifel
107 min

In this outstanding crime drama, two Palestinian cousins are exiled in Athens and in dire need of funds for fake passports to move their family to Germany. A slippery slope of moral compromise awaits as they resort to human smuggling and hostage-taking.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Drop Dead City
Drop Dead City film image; someone holding a newspaper up in front of a brick wall

Drop Dead City

Dir. Michael Rohatyn & Peter Yost
108 min

New York, 1975. The city is minutes away from bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford wants no part of it. Sanitation workers are on strike and cops are telling tourists it's not safe to visit. The town is going up in flames and they can't pay the firemen.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Sinners

Dir. Ryan Coogler
137 min

This year's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Life of Chuck

Dir. Mike Flanagan
111 min

The winner of the coveted Audience Award at TIFF last year, The Life of Chuck keeps us guessing about what it's up to and where it's going... Trust us, it's a keeper.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Graduate

Dir. Mike Nichols
106 min

In The Graduate Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman, 30 playing 20 with masterly understatement) comes home from college and is surprised to be seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

blur: To the End

Dir. Toby L.
108 min

Now in their late 50s, Britpopsters blur (of Song 2 fame) do a celebratory lap of Great Britain culminating in their first ever Wembley Stadium show in this appealing observational doc. A companion piece to the concert film Live at Wembley Stadium.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre