The Village Next to Paradise
Synopsis: Mamargrade uses funds diligently saved by his recently divorced sister to send his young son away from their picturesque coastal village to a boarding school in the city. He also becomes increasingly desperate to make good the wrongs of his circumstances, with potentially tragic consequences. The first Somali film to play in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, Mo Harawe’s drama is a tense, slow-burn character study.
Director Biography - Mo Harawe
Mo Harawe (born 1992) is a Somali-Austrian filmmaker. His debut feature film, The Village Next to Paradise, was selected for the Un Certain Regard section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Harawe was born in Mogadishu and attended art school in Somalia. He later studied visual communication and film at Kunsthochschule Kassel.
In 2009, Harawe moved to Austria and began a career in the film industry.[1] He released a string of short films throughout the 2010s and early 2020s. His 2024 debut feature-length project, The Village Next to Paradise, was selected to screen at that year's Cannes Film Festival.[2]