Kenya has been confirmed as an international film set, with the possibility in its incredibly varied landscapes to set any kind of film, drama and television series, in addition to the celebrated nature documentaries.
Over the years, this great possibility of having an infinite choice of locations in the same country has been corroborated by the growth of the organizational sector of film productions and the local filming environment, which has also created useful professional skills to source more and more specialized work forces directly locally.

Thus even a major German-Italian co-production, with active involvement of RAI Italian Radio and Television, made camp for two months in and around Malindi to shoot a story that originated in Africa and ended tragically in the Mediterranean Sea, on one of the many "death boats."
In Malindi, Iranian-born German director Yasemin Samdereli set "Samia," a film based on the international best seller "Don't Tell Me You're Afraid" by Italian writer Giuseppe Catozzella.

Filming in Kenya took place from early June to before the mid-August holiday season is this busy and profitable for at least two large resort hotels during the off-season, largely occupied by the Nairobi-based crew and production team, plus many restaurants and other ancillary activities, including local labor, transportation sector, rentals of houses and land used as sets and more.
"Film Tourism" is definitely a drift especially for resorts that no longer have the necessary appeal for modern or mass vacation needs, and in this Malindi definitely needs to adapt and renew itself if it does not want to be left at the post. Targeting other kinds of travelers and foreigners than those of organized vacations or fun and relaxation-only destinations is no longer a fad but becomes a matter of survival. Not to mention that, for those who will see the films shot in Kenya and become passionate about them, exactly as happened in the past, it will not be difficult to verify the possibility of visiting those places, even creating ad hoc itineraries that have made the fortune of so many locations in the world.

So welcome the setting of the old town of Malindi to reconstruct the Mogadishu in which the film's protagonist, Samia Yusuf Omar, grew up, a promising Somali athlete who, after representing her country at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, returns home and is persecuted for running without a veil. 
From there she decides she wants to continue her career and flees her country like thousands of other compatriots, crossing the desert and being shipwrecked off the coast of Italy.

Starring in the film, whose Italian shoot following the two months in Kenya was presented in recent days in Taranto, is Somali-born Italian debutant Ilham Osman Mohamed, 26, born in Turin to parents originally from Mogadishu.
The film is co-produced by Indyca film and shooting in Kenya was organized by Nairobi-based Blue Sky Production, which has a very long resume of international feature films, with employees taking part in immortal masterpieces such as "My Africa" and "The constant gardener."

In Malindi, locations have been set up in the Arab neighborhood of Shella, Silversand beach and other corners of the town, especially to set the life of the very young Samia in Mogadishu. The film is scheduled for release next year, probably to coincide with the Paris 2024 Olympics, which begin July 26.

(cover photo: facebook)