The 12th War on Screen festival, held annually in Normandy, France, concluded with a victory for Somali director Mo Harawe’s film, The Village Next to Paradise. The film won the Grand Prix du Jury International at the War on Screen festival.
Established in 2013, The War On Screen festival is an annual French film festival “focusing on representations of conflicts in all genres of cinema and animated image”. It is held each year in October at Châlons-en-Champagne, France. This year’s edition took place from October 7 to 13.
On Instagram, where the festival’s official account shared the news of Harawe’s win, other winners were included. These include Oksana Karpovych’s Intercepted, which claimed both the Mention Spéciale du Jury International and the Prix du Jury Presse.
Other winners
Other notable awardees included Mareike Engelhardt’s Rabia (Feature Film Audience Award), Fatima Kaci’s The Voice of Others (Court Film Audience Award), and Feurat Alani and Léonard Cohen’s Le Parfum d’Rak (Student Jury Award).
The Village Next to Paradise follows Mamargade, a man raising a child in a harsh landscape. The film also follows Araweelo, his sister, who has endured a divorce. The cast includes Ahmed Ali Farah and Anab Ahmed Ibrahim. The latter won Best Actress at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Mo Harawe Wins
The film itself was the first Somali film to be shown as an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, competing in the Un Certain Regard section. The film has been named one of the potential nominees of the 2024 European Film Awards.
Previous winners of the War on Screen awards include 2023 Audience Award winner Goodbye Julia by Mohamed Kordofani, International Jury Grand Prize winner In the Rearview by Maciek Hamela, 2022 International Jury Grand Prize winner En Route pour le Milliard (Downstream to Kinshasa) by Dieudo Hamadi, and International Jury Distinction winner Marin des Montagnes by Karim Aïnouz.
