Naima Mohamud Explains Why Finland Needs a Film Like ‘Halima’: ‘It Was a Long Time Coming’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Finnish-Somali director Naima Mohamud’s debut feature, “Halima,” was named Best Fiction Project at the Finnish Film Affair.

It’s not the first award for the film, which has consistently generated buzz also outside of the country. But it’s the first Finnish feature film directed by a Black woman.

Produced by It’s Alive Films, No-Office Films and Vico Films and currently in post-production, it’s set in 1998 in Finland. Halima is a 10-year-old imaginative Somali girl who’s obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio and Aqua (the band behind hit “Barbie Girl”), and wants nothing more than to be a pop star. The only trouble is, her family is always on the move, she has never had a friend and her mom refuses to talk about her dad.

“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,” Mohamud tells Variety.

“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.”

But Halima, who’s all about pop, is an outsider also in her own family.

“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.”

Other kids aren’t that forgiving. Luckily, Halima is still young enough not to listen to haters – for now.

“She loves Lene, the lead singer of Aqua and she wants her bangs. 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,” says Mohamud.

“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?”

Some directors find it hard to see things from a child’s perspective. But not Mohamud.

“I’m still a kid!,” she laughs.

“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 adds: “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!”

She wants to give Halima a moment of triumph in the film.

“There’s triumph, but it’s mischievous,” smiles Mohamud, whose goal is to make “joyful films.”

“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 admits.

“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.”

“Camphor” will be directed by Ayla Amano.

“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 admits.

“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.’”