Somali people wait for first screening of their country's first movie in decades

Somali people look at the first film festival held on 22 September in the newly renovated National Theater in the capital of Mogadishu, Somalia. REUTERS Feisal Omar is remembered as the greatest of Feisal Omar’s.

Dozens of other countries in MOGADISHU, Sept 23 Reuters - Dozens of Somalis chattered thrilledly in rows of red seats as they waited for the first screening of their country's first movie in three decades.

Among the crowd at the National Theatre was 24 - year old Kaif Jama, the writer and star of both films in the programme - the Horror story Hoos about a single woman moving into an empty house and a not-so - romantic comedy called Date from Hell This means something for everyone including me. This is for every Somali who wants to make movies, Jama said, wearing a traditional Somali dress striped silver, yellow and green.

She left Kenya at six and moved between Somalia and Egypt to Cairo before settling in Cairo aged 20 years.

Since then she has made 60 short films and skits with the Somali filmmaker Ibrahim CM.

Somalis have spent years watching Indian and Arab movies on their televisions, she said. The National Theatre, a gift from China's Mao Zedong, opened its doors in 1967.

It became an important home for Somalia's rich storytelling tradition, hosting plays, musical extravaganzas and, in the 1980's, African film festivals.

After Siad Barre's overthrow in 1991, clan-based warlords fought each other with anti-aircraft guns and blasted over the theatre which they used as a base to battle. The building was submerged so many times that the roof collapsed a year into the conflict.

The militants controlling Islamist cells seized control of the building in 2006. They banned all forms of public entertainment - from concerts to football matches - that they considered sinful.

Peacekeeping troops of the African Union reopened the capital in 2011 and the new Somali government clawed back control of the capital the following year. But just three weeks later, a suicide bomber from the Islamist al Shabaab insurgency struck during a ceremony, killing six people. The building was reopened again in 2020.

In the 1960 s, Mogadishu resident Hassan Abdulahi Mohamed recalls spending half a Somali shilling on a movie ticket and one shilling on snacks at the theater.

What was the last time I watched films in cinema, it was 1991, he said.