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A Somali Minnesotan filmmaker is boosting authentic Somali representation by making his first feature film — shot in Djibouti with a cast and crew from around the world.
Aleel Films founder Mohammed Sheikh said he wanted to be a filmmaker to combat false negative narratives of Somali people in mainstream media.
“If you’re watching TV, and you have absolutely no idea about Somali people, and the first thing that you watch … is a pirate, or somebody who’s stealing, or somebody who’s doing damage to the society, then your image of Somali people would be that,” said the writer and director.
“In 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.”
The movie is about three teenagers in rural Somalia looking for a lost girl named Barni, which is also the name of the film.
Sheikh’s original plan was to shoot “Barni” 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.
He founded Aleel Films in 2018 and made multiple short films, often featuring Somali people living in Minnesota — 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.
He said he wants to make films where the characters are Somali, but the overarching themes are universal, crossing cultural boundaries.
“The premise of the film was they’re from a small town, like Willmar, Minnesota, you know,” Sheikh said. “It 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.”
However, Sheikh’s 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.
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.
With short films, one person can do all the post-production work, but Sheikh said with feature films, that’s no longer possible.
“You 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 … the film,” Sheikh said. “If you try to do it all yourself … it’s not going to work.”
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’s National Agency for the Promotion of Culture and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture.
“Instead 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,” he said.
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.
“Strangers 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,” he said.
One example was working with Ryan Williams, the movie’s composer. Williams is not Somali, but he asked Sheikh to send him examples of Somali songs so he could compose something similar.
“That is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen, because it’s somebody who have never known anything about Somali now learning Somali music,” Sheikh said.
This year, Sheikh was also accepted to the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship. It’s a program that supports early-career artists in Minnesota and New York City by awarding them $20,000 a year for three years.
“This is such a relief for me, because that means now I can actually wholeheartedly focus on my filmmaking and take it seriously,” he said. “It’s an amazing opportunity, and I’m grateful to be a fellow.”
Jerome Foundation President and CEO Eleanor Savage said the admissions panel was very impressed with Sheikh’s work when he applied for the grant.
“They 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,” Savage said. “His work is just so strong in terms of … offering people, no matter what community you are from, a way to connect with the work.”
However, a lack of sufficient funding has slowed down the completion of “Barni.” Sheikh shot the movie in January 2024, and he’s still in the editing process. He has also started submitting it to film festivals. He plans for the movie’s world premiere to be this December, at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia.
In the meantime, Sheikh is working on other projects. He is currently working on a docuseries titled “To Be Whole Again” 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.
The piece documents the stories of four African mothers recovering from substance abuse disorder.
“To Be Whole Again” will have a free screening on Sept. 28 at The Parkway Theater.