Movie Night-Resilient Africa

The director essentially gives us a dual view into the young women's world. We watch as she begins parts of her Iife in Rural Somali setting living a typical herdsman's existence. Soon she begins to deal with the challenges of growing up and maturing in a world that is hostile towards her as a young woman and that is strictly speaking supposed to protect her. When she is confronted with some of the negative parts of her culture she does what anyone in distress has to do to survive. She flees into the barren and unforgiving landscape for better pastures. She is not searching for better grazing land for her sheep, instead she has become the lamb than has no shepherd. The landscape has character and is as hostile as it is protective. As long as she can keep walking she has hope of fining solace in a city or in the hands of a distant relative. Soon the ruggedness of the land leaves a mark on her delicate feet and it is this battle between human and nature that will shape her into the fighter she will need to be in defense of her rights. 

She manages to find relief in a truck...one of the many eighteen wheelers that snake their way across the few well made roads that scar the untouched landscape of Somalia. She is safe for a while until a human snake attempts to relieve itself with this untouched prepubescent. Presence of mind saves her and she makes use of some large rocks to quickly dispatch this miserable creature into the next world where doubtless unquenchable fires will serve to heal him from his lustful drives. 

As fate would have it she makes it into the city where she pounces on a plate of food in an unsuspecting household. Mercy prevails and she is given a chance to work in service of an older wealthier woman. 

You move back and forth from past to present with modern occurrences in London being used to shed some light on her thinking and her challenges in current age. 

She is in a modern shop and latches onto a young woman who happens to work in the trendy urban space. The two then find themselves drawn together in a complex multiracial community where they must depend on each other for sustenance although the ignorance of one is used to mask her hidden drive and spirit. Nurtured in part by the experiences she has gone through in rural Africa. What features next is a dance of sorts between two protagonists and those who will prove of benefit to both of them as time progresses. 

A chance encounter in a coffee shop presents the young Somali lady with an opportunity that will change her life or at least give her an opportunity to chart her own path. A friendship blossoms between her an her reluctant host as they build upon a strange and troubled union knit together by loose linguistic links and in another sense gender. 

The conservative Muslim girl then begins to engage with her English companion-liberal as can be and expressive in a big city which cares little what and who she entertains in the privacy of her dwelling. 

Again we see the young lady dealing with a hostile environment (except this time the hostility is of an different nature. Plenty of friction drawn from a variability of experiences foreign to hers but just as abrasive). She might as well be in a desert-of experiences and people. Hungry and thirsty and yet unable to draw water or eat in a place so isolating and unfriendly. All this except for the young stranger who allows her to spend one night in her single room apartment and who along with other are willing to break the rules on behalf of needy stranger. 

We could say a lot more but then you would probably accuse us of ruining the movie.