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ITV News’ Entertainment Reporter Rishi Davda sat down with Olympic boxer Ramla Ali and the award winning actor, Jasmine Jobson, who is taking her story to the big screen.
If you were to write down Ramla Ali’s life story, it would read like a movie script.
She’s lived almost every emotion in her 37 years and now she’s sharing them on the big screen.
Born in the Somalian city of Mogadishu, Ali and her family fled when she was just a toddler after her brother was killed by an explosive during the civil war.
By way of Kenya, they made their way to east London, arriving as refugees. It was here that she began plotting her path to success.
Ramla was a toddler when she fled Somalia with her family Credit: Ramla Ali
Ramla took up boxing as a teenager, as a way of keeping fit. She hid it from her strict Muslim parents because they wouldn’t have approved on religious grounds.
Her boxing career took off, and Ali found herself fighting for titles and even competed for Somalia at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
She’s used her platform in a positive way, championing young women.
Ali founded The Sisters Club, a non-profit organisation that offers free sports lessons to women of all races and religions.
The activist featured on the cover of British Vogue in September 2019 as part of the “Forces for Change” issue, which was guest-edited by Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex.
She was also named one of TIME Magazine’s Women of the Year in March 2023.
Her early life will be told through ‘In The Shadows’, which will premiere at London Film Festival on October 9th, with British actress Jasmine Jobson playing the role of Ramla.
Ali thinks she was the right person for the part because they are “both council estate kids”.
“We grew up rough”, she tells me as we sit in a screening room at the BFI on London’s Southbank.
“In the rough neighbourhoods. We’ve had to fight to always be seen and fight to always be heard.
“We had to chip away at anything we wanted to do or be in life and I think that is where the similarity is. We both have this ruthless refusal to quit.”
Ali, right, punches Australia’s Avril Mathie during the sixth round of a women’s super bantamweight boxing in 2023 Credit: AP
Ramla spent years convincing those close to her that boxing was her calling.
Jasmine – who won a Bafta for her part in the Netflix show Tomboy – also had to prove her passion was worth pursuing.
“It was ‘oh but it’s not going to pay your bills’. You are auditioning and auditioning but is it going to be a long-term thing?” she says.
“I was working three jobs and auditioning at the same time. Follow your dreams. Just don’t let nobody tell you no.”
Jasmine Jobson won the Best Supporting Actress award for Top Boy in 2024 Credit: PA
Ramla has always had an eye on the next generation, a clear ambition to see others follow her in footsteps.
As a Unicef UK ambassador, she’s travelled to places like Jordan and Kenya to meet people like her.
“I basically want to show that we’ve come from the same background and if I can do it, you can do it too,” she says.
She is also keen to change the rhetoric surrounding refugees and those who leave their homes to come the UK.
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“People don’t leave what they know back home, their life, their house, their friends, their family, their community, to come here for £100 a week,” Ramla continued.
“They do it because they have to, they are fleeing war, fleeing warlords, fleeing terrorism.
“For people to come out and say, ‘you are just coming here to scrounge off the government’, it is not true. I’m living proof of that.”
Ramla has spent two decades boxing, whereas Jasmine had about two weeks to prepare for her role.
Ali arrives at Time’s second annual Women of the Year Gala Credit: AP
I ask how significant her skills were before filming.
“Well, I mean I definitely wasn’t a terrible boxer. In my past life, I definitely had a lot of street fighting experience,” Jasmine says.
“I used to say that I’d had more fights than cooked dinners, but that doesn’t stand anymore.
“I had two weeks of intense training, five to six days a week and I became this champion right here (points at Ramla).”
In the Shadows will have its world premiere at the 70th BFI London Film Festival on Friday October 9.
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