Received the Doha Film Institute Spring Grant 2017
Basketball, one of the oldest and most popular games among Somali women, is now an endangered sport. This highly visual, character-driven portrait of the Somali Women’s National Basketball Team takes viewers on an immersive journey from Mogadishu to the Somali diaspora communities of Minneapolis and Toronto. The ‘Nation’s Hope’ filmmakers were embedded within the team throughout its troubled 2016-2017 season, which is viewed through the eyes of coach Suad Galow and several Mogadishu-based players. The film illuminates the power of basketball, a once-beloved Somali national sport, to reunite and re-inspire a nation fractured by 27 years of civil war. In a country where strict gender roles and Islamic tenets increasingly restrict women’s rights, this team personifies the hopes and aspirations of generations of Somali women.
Doha Film Institute selects 29 film projects from 16 countries for Spring Grants 2017
