A Girl from Mogadishu’ Starring Aja Naomi King To Hit Cinemas April 3

Pembridge Pictures and Umedia will release A Girl From Mogadishu, starring How To Get Away With Murder‘s Aja Naomi King, in Ireland on 3 April 2020, following a charity premiere in Dublin in aid of Ifrah Foundation on March 24th. There will be a special screening at the IFI followed by a Q&A with director Mary McGuckian and Ifrah Ahmed on evening of April 3rd

The female empowerment film is a true story based on the testimony of Ifrah Ahmed, who — having escaped war-torn Somalia — emerged as one of the world’s foremost international activists against gender based violence. Mary McGuckian (The Price Of Desire) is directing and wrote the script. Filming is underway in Belgium before moving to Ireland and Morocco. Check out a first-look photo of King as Ahmed above.

Ahmed was born into a refugee camp in Somalia in 2006 and emigrated to Ireland as a teenager. Recounting her traumatic childhood experiences of female genital mutilation when applying for refugee status, she is re-traumatized and vows to devote her life to the eradication of the practice — taking her campaign all the way to the President of Ireland and finally to the European Parliament and United Nations.

Martha Cango Antonio (Black) and Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) also star with Somali icon, Maryam Mursals.

A Girl From Mogadishu is a Pembridge (Ireland) and Umedia (Belgium) production, with production services provided by Dune Film Productions in Morocco.

Produced by McGuckian and Umedia CEO Adrian Politowski, Headgear & Metrol Technology present in association with Premier Picture and The Exchange, a co-production with U Media and Screen Brussels, produced in association with Bord Scannán na hÉireann (The Irish Film Board).

Executive producers are Tom Harberd, Phil Hunt and Compton Ross for Headgear; Anastasia Garret, Jason Garret and David Rogers for Premier Picture; Peter Bevan, Nadia Khamlichi, Tatjana Kozar and Gilles Waterkeyn for Umedia; Lesley McKimm for the Irish Film Board; Brian O’Shea for The Exchange; and Ifrah Foundation board members, Emma Beanland and Caroline Keeling.