Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
When viewers are introduced to Abdiwahab Ali, the main character in the short documentary Neighbour Abdi, his charisma radiates from the screen as he showcases his creative metalwork and spins a series of lively potential titles for a film about his life. But viewers soon learn that his easygoing attitude is hard-earned as he recounts his early years in civil war-torn Somalia followed by emigrating to the Netherlands at the age of 11, where he experienced alienation, crime and imprisonment.
In the film, Ali and the Dutch filmmaker Douwe Dijkstra – who met when the two were renting art studios in the same building – use miniature sets and clever special effects to reconstruct pivotal moments from Ali’s past. The result is jarring, as scenes of violence from his childhood in Somalia lift to reveal green screens and actors who often can’t quite keep a straight face. These moments, as well as Ali’s calls to friends in Somalia and words on his personal philosophy, draw out the extraordinary differences of the everyday in these two places. A deft and distinctive look at how circumstances beyond our control shape our worlds, Dijkstra and Ali’s film is also a reminder of how, with an open mind, this needn’t be a barrier to understanding one another’s stories.
Directors: Douwe Dijkstra, Abdiwahab Ali
Website: Valk Productions
video
Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
video
Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
video
History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
video
Wellbeing
Children of the Rwandan genocide face a unique stigma 30 years later
20 minutes
video
Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
Leading 1950s thinkers on the search for happiness in trying times
29 minutes
video
Biology
Butterflies become unrecognisable landscapes when viewed under electron microscopes
4 minutes
video
War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
video
Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes