Fatima grows up somewhere in the vast steppe of Somalia. The drought in 2011 and Al Shabab's attacks and pressure caused many nomads to flee their homes and walk for days and weeks through the empty land to arrive at a refugee camp in Mogadishu, Kenya or Ethiopia. Fatima loses almost everything. With only her mother she arrives in Mogadishu in a capital that is destroyed by ongoing civil war. Traumatized as she is she stopped singing when she arrived but things changed...

English subtitled version
for the German version without subtitles:
vimeo.com/35108156

This is a film we produced for Kindernothilfe (KNH) a German based humanitarian aid and relief organization focusing on the need of children.
kindernothilfe.de

While this was a promotional video we tried to focus on one local person that has benefited from the help and assistance KNH provided in Somalia.

Production time was three days in Mogadishu which was extremely short. Though the Islamist leading power Al-Shabab had just left the city a few weeks earlier and foreign aid organizations then got access Mogadishu was in a state of anarchy. Different militia and foreign troops like the African Union tried to control the city. We were one of the first western journalists having access to areas like the Bakara Market that was once linchpin for raw materials like gold and diamonds between Africa and the Arab World. Working closely with a local Somali partner of KNH helped us a lot getting access to different areas. Still for security reasons we could mostly just spend a short amount of time at one place before leaving to another. All the time being surrounded by two pick-up vans loaded with armed security guys made it difficult to get a much wanted natural and authentic atmosphere.

Post Production was done in Africa and Germany. Out of several hours of interview with Fatima (name changed due to security) that we transcripted during the curfew in the early mornings and evenings we built a narrative that was later voiced-over. Initially we wanted to keep the original voice and subtitle the whole story but as it was made for a German audience and because of distraction from the pictures we ended up letting a German production company do the voice-over.

Equipment:

Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Canon 24-105mm L IS 4f
Canon 16-35mm L
Canon 50mm 1.4f
Canon 85mm 1.8f
Glidetrack HD
Handgrip Nighthawk and D|Focus V3 (shoulder mount)
Zoom H1
2x Rode Videomic Pro
Manfrotto 501 HD and 701 HDV
LCW ND Filter Fader MK II
We edited and colour graded the entire clip on Final Cut Pro X

contact:
Augustin Pictures
Website: lukasaugustin.de
Twitter: twitter.com/LukasAugustin
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Augustin-Pictures/161244407238332