Interview: Khadar Ayderus Ahmed – The Gravedigger’s Wife

Making a moral complicated medley on death being at someone’s doorstep…and footsteps, with his feature debut film, Somalia-born, Finnish filmmaker Khadar Ayderus Ahmed proposes a portrait of love being confronted by indignation and injustice while constructing a text that side-steps empathy for what turns out to be a more accurate denouement. A project that was workshopped at the 2015 edition of La Résidence of the Festival de Cannes, Ahmed brings his already down and out but not entirely hopeless Yusuf (instantly likeable Omar Abdi) to the breaking point. It’ll take more than a shovel to get out of this crater-sized dilemma.

Selected for the competition section in the Critics’ Week in Cannes (was also selected as Somalia’s Oscar hopeful), The Gravedigger’s Wife arrives at TIFF for a prestige international premiere and where I got a chance to sit down with the filmmaker to discuss the character’s DNA, working with his lead actor and the overall evolution of the project.