Drama “Samia” in the cinema: The tragic fate of a fighter | NDR.de – Culture – Film

by Bettina Peulecke

The beginning of the film is the starting signal. And not even ten seconds have passed before you are in the middle of the daily race of nine-year-old Samia and her friend Ali. Two children in Somalia in 2000, on their way to school in the morning. Impetuous, determined and rising above every obstacle, across the dusty streets of the old town of Mogadishu. This dynamic, which the film takes up again and again as it progresses, the driving force of the protagonist, is the all-determining strength of “Samia”.

A girl with a dream – despite all the reprisals

This girl – and this is also quickly clear – knows exactly what she wants: to be the fastest woman in the world. And because Samia always gets to school before Ali, he eventually gets fed up, but wants to support her and become her trainer. But training is becoming increasingly difficult for Samia, because since the Islamists seized power, the country has been shaken by civil war and girls and women are hardly given any rights.

Since she has no other choice, Samia even trains in a veil. This absurdity makes even one of her brothers uncomfortable, while the older one takes a clear stance:

“There's no way she can walk properly with something like that.”
“She can’t anyway. Women aren’t allowed to run!”
Film scene

But “you're not allowed” doesn't exist for Samia. She keeps running. And despite all the reprisals, one day a government representative turns up and tells the now young woman that the Olympic Committee wants to meet her. At the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Samia carries her country's flag. It's not enough to win the competition, but she is still celebrated frenetically.

When she tried to flee to Europe in 2012, driven by a lack of prospects, the young woman died during the crossing on a refugee boat in the Mediterranean.

A refugee’s powerful story

Director Yasemin Şamdereli, who already showed a refreshing change of perspective between two cultures in her first feature film “Almanya – Welcome to Germany”, focuses on Samia’s childhood and youth and the precarious living conditions. There is even archive material from bomb attacks that shook the country at the time.

However, this realism is sometimes contradicted by an emotional and musical exaggeration when it comes to her dreams and when Samia speaks to her murdered father, for example. This causes the focus of the story to falter at times.

But like the stories of other refugees, such as those told this year in “I Capitano” or “Green Border,” the film “Samia” brings us much closer to a human fate than any headline or news report could.