Asad

As some of his pals head out to sea on more piratical missions, the young "Asad" (Harun Mohammed) is compelled, for the moment, to remain and engage with the local fisherman who works that beach. He is a decent old gent who allows his friend to take his large, and only, fish to market for him. En route through their rundown town, he and his friend encounter some local militia who upset his plans somewhat and that leaves this young man with a headache. His solution is to take to the waters himself - but what can he possibly hope to achieve all by himself? There is something engaging about Mohammed's effort here, and the film offers us a general indictment of the hopelessness of a situation in Somalia (though this was actually filmed at the bottom of the African continent) that is being terrorised by lawless and heavily armed lads hardly any older than him. I also did quite like the slightly ridiculous contrast at the end, but it actually felt more like a short-form documentary than a drama and it doesn't really go into any kind of meaningful detail. It's certainly worth quarter of an hour as it glimmers with a degree of optimism, but it's too short to really do much justice to it's character or it's message.