Musicians, actors and artists

Khadar Ayderus Ahmed (Khadar Cayderuus Axmed)

Khadar Ayderus Ahmed (born 10 January 1981) is a Finnish-Somali film director and writer. Born in Mogadishu, he moved to Finland as a refugee at 16. His first feature, The Gravedigger's Wife (2021), premiered at Cannes Critics' Week, won the top prize at FESPACO, and was the first Somali submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

Last checked 2026-11-12 2 sources Reading time: 1 min

Khadar Ayderus AhmedKhadar Cayderuus Axmed · Khadar Ahmed

Lived
1981-01-10 to today
Era
The Republic, 1960 to 1991; Rebuilding without a state, 1991 to 2012; Who holds power, 2012 to now
Sources
2 sources

Who is he?

Khadar Ayderus Ahmed is a Finnish-Somali director and writer (Wikipedia, Khadar Ayderus Ahmed). He is best known for the feature film The Gravedigger's Wife (2021) (same source).

Early life

He was born in Mogadishu on 10 January 1981 (Wikipedia). At 16 he moved to Finland with his family as a refugee (same source). See Somalis in Finland.

Short films

In 2008 he wrote the script for the award-winning short Citizens, directed by Juho Kuosmanen, and was its second assistant director (Wikipedia). He directed his first short, Me ei vietetä joulua, in 2014 (same source). He then made Yövaras (2017) and The Killing of Cahceravga (2018) (same source).

The Gravedigger's Wife

His first feature, The Gravedigger's Wife (Guled & Nasra), premiered in July 2021 in the Critics' Week section of the 74th Cannes Film Festival (Wikipedia). It was nominated for the Critics' Week Grand Prize and the Caméra d'Or (same source). At FESPACO it won the Golden Stallion of Yennenga, the festival's top prize (same source). It was the first Somali submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (same source). Yasmin Warsame had her first acting role in it (Wikipedia, Yasmin Warsame).

In short

A Mogadishu-born director in Finland whose The Gravedigger's Wife won FESPACO's top prize and was Somalia's first Oscar entry.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, Khadar Ayderus Ahmed · en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, Yasmin Warsame · en.wikipedia.org

Khadar Ayderus AhmedKhadar Cayderuus Axmed · Khadar Ahmed

Lived
1981-01-10 to today
Era
The Republic, 1960 to 1991; Rebuilding without a state, 1991 to 2012; Who holds power, 2012 to now
Sources
2 sources

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