Cleveland International Film Festival 2020 – A Girl from Mogadishu
‘Be the voice, not the victim’ - Ifrah Ahmed
A Girl from Mogadishu is based on the testimony of Ifrah Ahmed. Fleeing war-torn Somalia in 2006, she is trafficked to Ireland where, as an asylum-seeking refugee, she undergoes a traumatic medical examination which reveals the extent of her mutilation as a child. Traumatized by the memory, she turns her experiences into a force for good, emerging as one of the world’s most foremost global activists against Female Genital Mutilation.
‘Silence may be the rust on the razor that threatened to cut my throat, but it was not my tongue they cut.’
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Mary McGuckian
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Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
‘Silence may be the rust on the razor with which they threatened to cut my throat, but it was not my tongue they cut.’
I can’t, of course, claim credit for the entirety of the line - an intentional homage to Maya Angelou in a script written before Tarana Burke’s #MeToo took off in the film world – but the power of testimony is the fundamental feminist tenet to which the film subscribes and what drew me to this story.
A Girl from Mogadishu is the story of how Ifrah Ahmed came to understand, develop and employ the most potent of campaign tools – her own true story – and use it to empowering and extraordinary effect. Not only as a healing tool for her own trauma but in becoming the ‘voice, not the victim’ she contributed to the global campaign to end Female Genital Mutilation in a way that medical descriptions and statistical reports could never do.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
When we celebrate female heroes in cinema – we not only amplify their voices – but we empower their audience to be touched and emboldened by their courage.
While A Girl from Mogadishu is essentially a movie based on the experiences and testimony of international FGM activist, Ifrah Ahmed, it is also the story of many of the 200 million women and girls worldwide who have suffered the consequences of Female Genital Mutilation. Storytelling is a universal cultural healer. Cinema has the power to touch hearts and change minds. But a movie cannot make this change on its own. It needs an audience to champion it. Each and every audience member can be empowered to become a champion in their own right.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
‘Be the voice, not the victim’, is Ifrah's mantra. And although the movie is undoubtedly intended to focus attention on the barbarity and scale of the practice of FGM, its ambition is also to empower all young women and girls to have the courage to stand up and speak out. Fundamentally, the film is about the power of testimony. How one voice can amplify to become a channel for change.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
It began as a script based on the testimony of Ifrah Ahmed, true to her personal experience. It has become a tool for the global impact campaign to raise awareness and refocus attention on the eradication of FGM.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The feedback has been phenomenal. From audience and jury awards at a number of festivals including the Cinema for Peace Foundation Female Empowerment Award at the Berlin Film Festival 2020 to impacting attention and funding towards the eradication of FGM at the 2019 UNFPA 25th anniversary ICDP Conference in Nairobi. I've been most affected by the reaction of FGM survivors who identify in a very immediate way with Ifrah's story and feel empowered to share their own stories as a result.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
No. Rather reassured it.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Visibility.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Journalists to spread the word and amplify the film's message as it starts its release cycle becoming more available in the US with a view to bringing on distributors internationally.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Ifrah and I both hope that A Girl from Mogadishu can have the kind of impact as it relates to FGM as say Philadelphia had on the issue of HIV/AIDS.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Is it acceptable that 200,000,000 women worldwide live with the consequences of Female Genital Mutilation and so little is done to support them?
Would you like to add anything else?
The hoped impact is that the global campaign to eliminate FGM is properly funded to support national programs consistently in the long-term at scale to ensure the worldwide eradication of the practice.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
A number of projects that intend to contribute to the gender conversation including a TV series entitled #IBelieveHer!
Interview: May 2020
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
A Girl from Mogadishu
‘Be the voice, not the victim’ - Ifrah Ahmed
A Girl from Mogadishu is based on the testimony of Ifrah Ahmed. Fleeing war-torn Somalia in 2006, she is trafficked to Ireland where, as an asylum-seeking refugee, she undergoes a traumatic medical examination which reveals the extent of her mutilation as a child. Traumatized by the memory, she turns her experiences into a force for good, emerging as one of the world’s most foremost global activists against Female Genital Mutilation.
‘Silence may be the rust on the razor that threatened to cut my throat, but it was not my tongue they cut.’
Length: 52:00
Director: Mary McGuckian
Producer: Pembridge Pictures & U Media
Writer: Mary McGuckian
About the writer, director and producer:
MARY McGUCKIAN has been making movies for over 25 years. Her films have been presented at hundreds of film festivals around the world including Tribeca and Sundance in the US, Locarno and Venice in Europe and Edinburgh, London and Galway at home. Her latest film A Girl from Mogadishu picked up a number of film festival audience and jury awards and was the recipient of the prestigious Cinema for Peace Foundation Women’s Empowerment Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2020. She has also authored over a dozen independent feature films and has a collaborative approach when working with actors, including Aja Naomi King and Barkhad Abdi in A Girl from Mogadishu (2019) and Orla Brady, Alanis Morrissette and Vincent Perez in The Price of Desire (2015). Man on the Train (2011) starred Donald Sutherland and Larry Mullen Jr. Earlier films including The Amorality Trilogy Plus One (2006-2010), some four films featured an international ensemble cast including Lothaire Bluteau, Donna D’Errico, Colm Feore, Rupert Graves, Ian Hart, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jordi Molla, Andie MacDowell, Bill Patterson, Amanda Plummer, Jennifer Tilly, John Sessions, and Sarah Stockbridge.
PEMBRIDGE PICTURES is the production entity owned by Mary Mcguckian in Ireland.
U MEDIA was founded by Adrian Pilotowski in Belgium.
Key cast: Aja Naomi King (Ifrah), Barkhad Abdi (Hassan), Martha Canga Antonio (Amala), Maryam Mursal, (Grandmother)
Looking for: journalists
Facebook: A Girl from Mogadishu
Twitter: @agirl_mogadishu
Instagram: @girlfrommogadishumovie_2019
Hashtags used: #EndFGM #WomenInFilm #IfrahAhmed
Website: www.agirlfrommogadishu-themovie.com
Made in association with: Pembridge Pictures
Funders: Screen Ireland, U Media, Headgear
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Coming soon in the US as a CABLE TV PREMIERE.