13/09/2024 - After competing at the Mexico City International Documentary Film Festival, the new movie by the director of Drowning Letters will take part in the Seminci’s Tiempo de Historia strand

The international premiere of My Brother Ali [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Paula Palacios will take place during the 19^th edition of DocsMX, Mexico City International Documentary Film Festival (10-20 October). Later that same month, it will enjoy its Spanish premiere at the 69^th Seminci – Valladolid International Film Festival, in the Tiempo de Historia (lit. “Time of History”) official section, where it will also be vying for the DOC. España Award.

Palacios’s feature debut, Drowning Letters [+see also:
trailer
film profile], scooped the Silver Biznaga Audience Award at the Málaga Film Festival and was nominated for the Forqué, Goya and Platino Awards in 2021. According to the director, My Brother Ali “is a continuation of the topic of migration, exploring boundaries and cultural differences in a deeper and more personal way. The American Dream enshrouds Ali at a moment of absolute catharsis in his life, and his success story as a migrant makes him wonder about himself as a person and seek out a new tribe. But you don’t get to choose your tribes, or your brothers – or do you? I’d like to think that there is a lot of freedom in this story, in which Ali and I formed a relationship mainly through the camera lens. That particular gaze, which has always been about us as equals, and Ali’s shrewdness have allowed me to tackle certain topics in this film that I wouldn’t have been able to broach in another movie, such as the matters of ‘us’, ‘you’, tribes and dreams. It’s a film with a surprising ending, which even I never imagined.”

The doc tells a story of friendship over the course of 12 years, during which time the Spanish director followed Ali, a young man who fled the war in Somalia at the age of 14. An encounter in a Ukrainian prison in 2012 caused the boy’s life to change direction. Filmed in Ukraine, the USA, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Spain, often by the main character himself, it tells a story of personal growth in a hostile world where, while trying to achieve the American Dream, Ali questions his fortunes and sets off in search of a new tribe.

My Brother Ali is a co-production between Morada Films (Spain) and Serena Productions (Portugal), which secured funding from the ICAA and the Madrid City Council, and which boasts the involvement of RTVE and Al Jazeera Documentary Channel. During its production phase, it won the IDA Netflix Global Emerging Filmmaker Award, the Award for Best Documentary at Ventana CineMad and the Music Library & SFX Award – Docs Barcelona Rough Cut Pitch, and as a project, it was selected for CIMA Mentoring, for the Cannes Docs Spotlighted Projects section, and for Abycine Lanza WIP. The movie will hit Spanish screens on 22 November, courtesy of Syldavia Cinema.

Check out our exclusive poster and clip below:

(Translated from Spanish)