ARABISK FILMFEST: HAIYU – Rebel Singer Mariem Hassan and the Struggle for a Free Western Sahara

Tittelen på filmen kommer fra en av de største sangene til den ikoniske sangeren Mariem Hassan, og er et stridsrop for revolusjon og frihet i Vest-Sahara.

Filmen fletter sammen musikken hennes og hennes personlige kamp for frigjøringen landet hun elsker så høyt.

Gjennom arkiv og intervjuer av familie, artister og venner,gjenfortelles Hassan´s enorme lidenskap og kampmot. Hun er selve symbolet på motstandskampen!

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An iconic singer’s life, music and lyrics are deeply intertwined with the struggle for freedom in a country known as Africa’s last colony.

The title of this film is also the name of iconic singer Mariem Hassan’s song, an exuberant rally cry for revolution and freedom in Western Sahara. The result of a collaboration between filmmaker collectives RåFILM from Sweden and Saharawi Voice from the Western Sahara refugee camps in Algeria, HAIYU interweaves Mariem Hassan’s music and her personal quest for her country’s independence with larger historical events dating back to the region’s Spanish colonisation, and subsequent occupation by Morocco.

Told through archive footage and interviews with family, artists, friends and revolutionaries

the film details Hassan’s commitment and compassion.  Her evocative music and poetry does not only represent her spirit, but that of the Saharawi women, and a people who continue their struggle for self-determination and the battle for their land and resources.

Regi: Alex Veitch, Brahim B. Ali, Mohamedsalem Uered, Anna Klara Åhrén. Vest-Sahara/Sverige, 2024. Arabisk/spansk tale, engelsk tekst. Format: DCP. 1t 30min.