How to Get Away With Murder star Aja Naomi King will play Ifrah Ahmed, a Somali activist, in the female empowerment film A Girl From Mogadishu. According to Variety, principal photography has started in Belgium with Ireland-based Pembridge Pictures and Belgium-based Umedia as the production companies.
King’s character was born into a refugee camp in Somalia in 2006 and emigrated to Ireland as a teenager. The film recounts her traumatic childhood experiences of female genital mutilation when applying for refugee status. She is then re-traumatized and vows to devote her life to the destruction of the practice, taking her campaign all the way to the President of Ireland and finally to the European Parliament and United Nations.
A Girl From Mogadishu also stars Martha Canga Antonio, Barkhad Abdi and Maryam Mursals.
The film is directed by Irish filmmaker, Mary McGuckian who calls Ahmed “just an immensely inspiring person and her story speaks to all of refugee status, sexual violence in conflict, gender-based violence, the asylum system as well as FGM. Fundamentally, A Girl From Mogadishu celebrates the power of testimony. How, when women find the courage to stand-up, speak out and tell their truth, the impact can be more than inspiring and empowering, and act as a meaningful catalyst for change.”
Production will be completed in Ireland and Morocco sometime in February.
