Dhalinyaro, is the name of a new feature film which is under production in Djibouti directed by the first Djibouti’s first female director of conventional films.
The director of this film, Lula Ali Ismail’s says the film depicts the life of three young girls transitioning from Intermediate school to Secondary School.
“this is the time during the adolescence in Djibouti when young people face the stressful period of reaching a decision that could be life changing.” said Lula Ali Ismael.
She is planning to make factual films based on real people and real stories. However, she might be forced to dramatise a bit and not completely move away from fiction.
The film Dhalinyaro will receive funding from Lula’s current home country, Canada, together with her original home country Djibouti and France plus Senegal and the OIF (International Organisation of the Francophone). These countries and other investors are to provide the film’s budget estimated to be over one million dollars.
The Canadian-Djiboutian director has been encouraged by the success she made in producing her first film which she not only directed but also co-stared together with two other Djiboutian females. The short film LAAN came out of Lula’s adventure and desire to switch from her acting training in Montreal Canada after being regularly kept aside and only given undesirable roles.
“I was only given despicable roles such as being an important background actor, the maid, the street girl etc. I decided to impact on directing films of my own and that is how I ended up in directing Films in Djibouti acted by real Djiboutian actors”. Said Lula Ismail.
It is directed by Lula Ali is a young Djibouti young women who permanently resides in Montreal Canada. She went to acting school in order to address her shyness which she thought was not out-going and the shyness was hinderance to realize her dreams.
LAAN, LULA’s Short Film on
The short film LAAN is one of the first tri-lingual films that Djibouti has ever produced in recent years. In addition to the Somali and French language spoken by the actors within the film, there is also English language subtitling for non-speakers of those two languages.
The short film has addressed a subject that is considered to be a taboo to talk about. It is the Khat (green leaves chewed for stimulation) which had been traditionally consumed in Djibouti for centuries.
For Djibouti and Lula, this is embarking on a new road for a country now stretching itself to test its potential with major developments on the move including over 9 billion US dollar investment on several ports, roads and railway lines.
Lula told me she dreams of a future where Djibouti develops a high stander film industry and at least to be part of founders of such industry which is now under-developed in Djibouti, a country that has a population of less than a million.
Abdirahman-Koronto 