Naima Mohamud's 'Halima' Is the First Finnish Feature Directed by a Black Woman

Finnish-Somali director Naima Mohamud's debut feature "Halima" is the first Finnish feature film directed by a Black woman. The film, currently in post-production, has just been named Best Fiction Project at the Finnish Film Affair — and it is not the film's first award, with buzz building outside Finland as well.

Produced by It's Alive Films, No-Office Films and Vico Films, "Halima" is set in Finland in 1998. Its title character is a 10-year-old imaginative Somali girl obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio and the band Aqua, the group behind the hit "Barbie Girl." She wants nothing more than to be a pop star. There are obstacles: her family is always on the move, she has never had a friend, and her mother refuses to talk about her father.

Why Does Finland Need 'Halima'?

Mohamud frames the film as overdue recognition of a long-standing community. "To be honest, I really think that a film like 'Halima' was a long time coming. We Somalis have been living in Finland for over 35 years, yet most Finns still don't know anything about us, our culture or how we interact at home. None of those things," she told Variety.

Her ambition for the film is specific and modest at once. "This film might help someone with a Somali neighbor finally get a glimpse. I hope that's what this film does: opens up Finns to understanding Somalis."

What does that change for Finnish cinema? On the evidence here, a first: a domestic feature that renders a Somali household from the inside, at a moment when the industry body behind the Finnish Film Affair has put its top project prize behind it.

An Outsider at Home and at School

Halima, who is all about pop, is an outsider in her own family too. "She has all these dreams of becoming a big star, which confuses her mom. She gets in trouble at school because of her imagination, and her mom just can't understand the dancing and obsession with music. But she has bigger fish to fry, she has to support the family and make sure everyone's okay, so she accepts it in her own way," Mohamud said.

Other children are less forgiving. Halima cuts her hair to copy Lene, Aqua's lead singer. "Her hair is different, so when she cuts it, of course it looks weird. She's okay with it, though, until other kids start bullying her," Mohamud said. "She's still a child who's not too self-conscious, but she's slowly starting to understand that maybe this is embarrassing? Maybe I really look horrible?"

'I'm Still a Kid!'

Writing from a child's perspective came easily. "I'm still a kid!" Mohamud laughed. "I've always understood kids, so I had a great time working with them. I really enjoy this innocence of childhood. The older you get, the more you overthink. You start doubting yourself too much. Kids don't have that. Halima thinks she can dance, and in her mind, she's brilliant. When I decided to become a filmmaker at 14, I also didn't think it was impossible – or that it would take so many years."

She added: "I like that 'childish' way of thinking, that everything is possible. You want something, and you go for it. I was just a very curious kid, too. I'd wonder: 'Would my backpack fit in the school mailbox? What would it feel like to jump out of the window in the middle of class and roll around in the snow? Let's find out!'"

Halima gets a moment of triumph in the film — but "it's mischievous," Mohamud smiled.

Joyful Films, Not Serious Ones

Mohamud's stated goal is to make "joyful films," and she is blunt about her limits. "I like happiness, and I like feeling happy. I love watching deep, serious films the same way I love looking at beautiful pieces of art. But I don't want to spend my time making them," she admitted.

"It's so important to know who you are as a filmmaker. I'll just give you an example: recently, I wrote a short film about a reclusive Muslim scholar who's asked to wash the dead body of a stranger who died alone. The experience helps her heal her own grief. It's a very serious film, and I knew I could never direct it."

That film, "Camphor," will be directed by Ayla Amano instead. "That film needed a poetic soul, and that's not me – at least not as a director. I'd probably make the characters tell a few jokes and it would be so inappropriate. Even in film school, my classmates were all about the French New Wave. I loved James Cameron," she admitted.

She is not planning to change. "It's just who I am, and I'm not going to change. I make films that I hope make you feel good when you leave the cinema. A tear here or there is great, but at the end, I want people to say: 'You know what? Life is amazing.'"

With a Finnish Film Affair prize, multiple prior awards and a production now in post, "Halima" now heads toward release carrying a double burden: the first of its kind, and a test of whether a Finnish audience will take the glimpse Mohamud is offering.