Muna
by Warda Mohamed
2024, UK, 19 mins
9:15 PM on Sept 20, 2024
About the movie
MUNA is a delicate exploration of grief across cultures – especially the confusion for someone sitting at the fault line between two worlds, wrestling with dual consciousness. It challenges narratives around girlhood and coming-of-age stories, which are almost universally white, and asks why a young British Somali girl cannot be seen in this everyday context. Although the story is about grief, it foregrounds the radical power of ordinary Gen Z dreams against traditional custom, and avoids victimisation narratives.
About the director
Warda is a British-Somali filmmaker. She began her film career assisting on Sarah Gavron’s ROCKS, where she consulted on elements of Somali representation. Her first experimental short SORRY MY SOMALI IS NOT VERY GOOD premiered on BFI Player in June 2021 and has been screened at BFI Southbank and at Aesthetica Film Festival. She is an alumna of the BFI NETWORK@LFF talent programme and participated in the writersroom for the second season of Nida Manzoor’s Channel 4 comedy series WE ARE LADY PARTS.
Expanding her talents into the theatre, Warda co-directed DUGSI DAYZ, a comedic riff on The Breakfast Club that won the 2023 Untapped Award and performed a month-long run at Edinburgh Fringe across summer 2023, ultimately winning the BBC Popcorn Award for New Writing. The play has since transferred to New Diorama Theatre and the Royal Court.
Warda’s debut narrative short – MUNA – was backed by BBC Film, in association with UK Muslim Film and Sabrina Elba, and is currently on its festival run. Making its International Premiere at 74th Berlinale Film Festival, the film has made Official Selection at over thirty film festivals globally – playing across domestic programmes such as Raindance, BFI London Film Festival, to the international stage at San Francisco Film Festival, Aspen Shortsfest, American Black Film Festival and Curta Cinema Rio de Janeiro, among others. MUNA was nominated for Best British Short Film at the British Independent Film Awards and at the London Critics Circle Film Awards 2023, and for the HBO Short Film Award, as well winning Best Short Film at the British Short Film Awards.