{"id":20105,"date":"2025-09-16T15:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/20105\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T15:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T15:40:09","slug":"this-somali-minnesotan-is-making-his-first-international-feature-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/20105\/","title":{"rendered":"This Somali Minnesotan is making his first international feature film"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story comes to you from\u00a0MPR News<\/a>\u00a0through a partnership with\u00a0Sahan Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Somali Minnesotan filmmaker is boosting authentic Somali representation by making his first feature film \u2014 shot in Djibouti with a cast and crew from around the world.<\/p>\n

Aleel Films founder Mohammed Sheikh said he wanted to be a filmmaker to combat false negative narratives of Somali people in mainstream media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re watching TV, and you have absolutely no idea about Somali people, and the first thing that you watch \u2026 is a pirate, or somebody who\u2019s stealing, or somebody who\u2019s doing damage to the society, then your image of Somali people would be that,\u201d said the writer and director.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order for us to coexist and to have a mutual understanding of who we are, we really need those authentic stories to come out of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movie is about three teenagers in rural Somalia looking for a lost girl named Barni, which is also the name of the film.<\/p>\n

Sheikh\u2019s original plan was to shoot \u201cBarni\u201d in Minnesota. He was born in a refugee camp in eastern Ethiopia to Somali parents, and he and his family moved to Minnesota in 2013.<\/p>\n

He founded Aleel Films in 2018 and made multiple short films, often featuring Somali people living in Minnesota \u2014 Minnesota is home to the largest population of Somali people in the U.S. Sheikh, who lives in St. Paul, said he wanted to try a bigger project.<\/p>\n

He said he wants to make films where the characters are Somali, but the overarching themes are universal, crossing cultural boundaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe premise of the film was they\u2019re from a small town, like Willmar, Minnesota, you know,\u201d Sheikh said. \u201cIt was not possible to actually make that film here, so I just took that idea and then translated that into Somalia. So I wrote that film with Somalia in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Sheikh\u2019s friends in Somalia told him the country was not stable enough to shoot a feature film, and recommended he look into shooting opportunities in Djibouti.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said working on a 90-minute movie was drastically different from the short films and short documentaries he had previously done. It required more-experienced workers, a larger crew and longer and more intense shoot days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With short films, one person can do all the post-production work, but Sheikh said with feature films, that\u2019s no longer possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can be the producer, you can be the script writer, and you can be the director. But after that, you have to step aside and let other people come in and shape \u2026 the film,\u201d Sheikh said. \u201cIf you try to do it all yourself \u2026 it\u2019s not going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A still from Mohammed Sheikh\u2019s first feature-length film, \u201cBarni.\u201d The movie is expected to have its world premiere in December at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia. Credit: Courtesy of Mohammed Sheikh<\/p>\n

That meant hiring an editor, film composer, cinematographer, audio mixer and more. Sheikh added that one reason he shot the movie in rural Djibouti was because he received support from the Djibouti government\u2019s National Agency for the Promotion of Culture and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of renting a hotel, they have a place for the crew and cast to stay. They help with the transportation, they help put the food. Basically, they help with all aspects of the production to make it easier for you. Whereas if I was doing that in Minnesota, I have to take care of all of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The cast features Djibouti residents who are ethnically Somali, and the crew is composed of creatives from countries across the world, like Brazil, Uganda and the United States. Sheikh said collaborating with people across different backgrounds is his favorite part about this project.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrangers who have never known each other, coming together and laughing and sharing food with each other, I was blown away by that because so many people came together for a project that stemmed from my mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One example was working with Ryan Williams, the movie\u2019s composer. Williams is not Somali, but he asked Sheikh to send him examples of Somali songs so he could compose something similar.<\/p>\n

\"\"A still from Mohammed Sheikh\u2019s first feature-length film, \u201cBarni.\u201d The movie is expected to have its world premiere in December at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia. Credit: Courtesy of Mohammed Sheikh<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is one of the most beautiful things I\u2019ve seen, because it\u2019s somebody who have never known anything about Somali now learning Somali music,\u201d Sheikh said.<\/p>\n

This year, Sheikh was also accepted to the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. It\u2019s a program that supports early-career artists in Minnesota and New York City by awarding them $20,000 a year for three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is such a relief for me, because that means now I can actually wholeheartedly focus on my filmmaking and take it seriously,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing opportunity, and I\u2019m grateful to be a fellow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerome Foundation President and CEO Eleanor Savage said the admissions panel was very impressed with Sheikh\u2019s work when he applied for the grant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were so taken with his imagery, the way that he translates that cinematically, they felt like it was very poetic. Also very clear that he has such a strong, clear voice as a filmmaker,\u201d Savage said. \u201cHis work is just so strong in terms of \u2026 offering people, no matter what community you are from, a way to connect with the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Mohammed Sheikh, founder of Aleel Films, in his studio in Minneapolis on Aug. 6. Credit: Anita Li | MPR News<\/p>\n

However, a lack of sufficient funding has slowed down the completion of \u201cBarni.\u201d Sheikh shot the movie in January 2024, and he\u2019s still in the editing process. He has also started submitting it to film festivals. He plans for the movie\u2019s world premiere to be this December, at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Sheikh is working on other projects. He is currently working on a docuseries titled \u201cTo Be Whole Again\u201d in collaboration with the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches and Uniting & Mobilizing Mothers, which is a program for Somali and East African mothers struggling with substance use or who are in treatment or recovery.<\/p>\n

The piece documents the stories of four African mothers recovering from substance abuse disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo Be Whole Again\u201d<\/a>\u00a0will have a free screening on Sept. 28 at The Parkway Theater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story comes to you from\u00a0MPR News\u00a0through a partnership with\u00a0Sahan Journal. A Somali Minnesotan filmmaker is boosting authentic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,878,19192,85,46,19193],"class_list":["post-20105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-filmmaking","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-somali"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}