‘I wanted this film to be 100% Somali’: the fight to make The Gravedigger’s Wife

Khadar Ayderus Ahmed, who directed the acclaimed drama, reveals the struggle to portray his community with dignity and compassion'

I am Somali and I made this film for Somali people to watch a film in their mother tongue without needing subtitles," says film director Khadar Ayderus Ahmed. Ahmed made his feature debut with The Gravedigger's Wife, and after premiering in May at the Cannes film festival's Critics' Week, it made headlines as the first film from Somalia to be put forward for the Oscars.

As a film-maker, I felt a sense of responsibility to tell the story of how I view my Somali community and to tell this story with dignity, tenderness and compassion - all the qualities I've been raised with," says Ahmed, who was born in Somalia before moving to Finland as a teenager.