In Djibouti City, Guled literally chases ambulances–he’s a gravedigger who competes with others to procure a cadaver for a meager wage. It’s a living… until his wife, Nasra, is diagnosed with kidney failure, forcing Guled and his young son, Mahad, to take desperate measures to raise money for treatment.
Guled and Nasra are a devoted, loving couple. Abandoning their villages to run off together to the big city, they started a family, and eke out a living with gravedigging and other menial work. But Nasra’s kidney failure weighs heavily on the family, as it would take an entire year’s pay to even begin the necessary treatment. Finnish Somali writer-director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s poignant and finely observed film is both a damning critique of the health care system and a portrait of people who exist in love despite hideous circumstances. Official Somali entry for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.
Director Biography
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, Khadar Ayderus Ahmed moved to Finland as a refugee when he was 16. He is the director of the short films “Me ei vietetä joulua” (2104), “Yövaras” (2017). Inspired by a death in the family in 2010, he wrote the screenplay for The Gravedigger’s Wife (2021).