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Desert Flower

Coverage by Nobuhiro Hosoki

Story : Waris Dirie (Liya Kebede) escapes the horrors of Somalia to work in London, where a photographer (Timothy Spall) and an agent (Juliet Stevenson) turn her into a top supermodel.

Opens March 18, 2011 (Limited 3/18)

Runtime:2 hr. 0 min.

 

Interview with Actres Liya Kebede adn Director Sherry Horman

 

(Q) : What came first, reading the book or Interest in AFRICA?

(Sherry Horman) : Reading the book. The producer gave me the book and I was totally surprised that this is a real story and was taken by the idea that this story needs to get out and agreed to tell the whole story not just bits and pieces.

(Q) : I heard ELTON JOHN was Involved in this project one point?

(Sherry Horman) : I never met him. What happened was that she(Waris Dirie) sold the rights to this company(Desert Flower Film production) and they tried to make scripts in Los Angeles and Waris was never satisfied because it was only bits and pieces. They would not talk about FGM or whatever and she was very dissatisfied and this is where I came in. so I never met him and I don’t know his approach but our approach was to go really into the whole, also by the cast, you know, I was looking for the real woman. I mean for a Somali looking woman and not just a shooting star with the right skin color.

(Q) : How Involved was Waris in the Filmmaking process and when you met her?

(Liya Kebede) : Actually, before doing this film I never met Waris. I didn’t meet her during the ["Desert Flower"] shoot. I met her the last day of the shoot. It was really good of her to hand us this really fragile project and trusted Sherry [Hormann, the director of "Desert Flower" mostly and all of us to take it and interpret it in the way it made sense for us. She was really good about giving us the space to do what we could do with it. I met her the last day of the shoot. We had a dinner. It was kind of strange but great at the same time to meet this woman who, for me at least, I felt like I had known so much, and I felt like I had seen her life and felt her thoughts and things like that. And then to meet her physically was such a strange moment of knowing someone and not knowing someone. So it was kind of interesting.

(Sherry Horman) : And as you just realize they met at the very last day so I was really keen on them not meeting from the very beginning. That was my absolute approach to say it’s about the message, the story. It’s not a bio pic about Waris Derie. I wanted to get a global feeling for a girl who had to escape from Somalia. A girl who ends up being a cleaning woman at McDonalds and turning into a woman at the peak of her career as a model gives that historic speech in front of the UN you know? And if they had met at the very beginning it would’ve been all about Waris. So it was a very different approach from other movies where they shoot a true story.

(Q) : Was it intimidating for you to play her?

(Liya Kebede) : I was definitely intimidated. I was really nervous. I was really worried. "What if she doesn’t like me? I’m supposed to play her life." It’s very difficult to hand someone your whole life story to play, and you’ve never really met that person. I was really impressed with the courage that she had to sort of let us do it that way.

(Q) : Was it weird to know a lot about her and she knew so little about you?

(Liya Kebede) : It was very awkward, but in a good way. And also later she told me how nervous she really was about meeting me, too. And then it took a little minute to break the ice. She actually broke the ice. I was acting more nervous than she was, I suppose. And she was really cool about, "OK, come here and give me a hug. Let’s just break this thing off." And we did. And then it was cool. And then it was nice.

(Q) : What other platforms are Involved in the film in terms of getting practical project out?

(Sherry Horman): Thank you for the question because what we did first of all was we are supporting people there like the little kid who was in the movie that she’s not getting circumcised and we had a huge screening in Djibouti which is as you know the northern part of Somalia and we’re having a screening in the desert and we were expecting like 800 people. We had, I’m not exaggerating, 3,000 people. I mean it was pitch dark and we had many, many men. As you know, in certain societies it’s the men who watch the movies if they are even watching the movie. So they were sitting on the ground and the movie was over and a man stood up, tears in his eyes, a nomad guy and he said, ‘Never, ever.

We were talking about this topic. I wasn’t aware of what is going on with my daughters. I was not aware and never, ever do I want any of my daughters to be hurt.’ And then other men stood up. So for us, you know, if the movie just reach that, it’s great and to see how the movie is traveling around the globe like Columbia where they have that ritual, I was not aware of that at all.

(Q) How about in South America?

(Sherry Horman): South America. Tribes in Australia where the movie is screened or even we had a big success in Israel and I was totally surprised by that. So you find out that while the movie is traveling the movie is educating you, you know what’s going on and also the European Union was very supportive when we were traveling through Europe. So they were approaching us. They did not approach us when I started writing the script; the doors were closed. If it wasn’t NGO or whatever, the doors were closed but as soon as the movie got out, the doors opened. So there’s a lot going on.

(Liya Kebede) : Right, right.

(Sherry Horman: Baby steps.

(Q) Can you talk about the casting process?

(Sherry Horman : Of hiring this beautiful woman?

(Liya Kebede): [Laughs]

(Sherry Horman : We did a huge casting in all continents. We started in Africa, Kenya, South Africa. We went to Europe to all the Somalia communities, we finally ended up in New York and L.A. and there were many women in Los Angeles who were eager to play that role because as a woman, what’s PC right now, black woman, am I allowed to say—

(Q) : WOMAN OF COLOR.

(Sherry Horman) : Woman of color. Jesus, oh it always changes. Ok, umm, it’s a big chance to play that kind of role and it was tape number, I don’t know, I looked at at least 3,000 beautiful women and there was that. I was really exhausted by then I have to admit and because to have that, to be able to act and perform and be able to walk along that catwalk is two different worlds and there she was getting that audition and I never looked at the CD before, never. I was not aware that she’s a top model, could have been I would be full of prejudices saying, ‘Oh boy a top model, give me a break.’ So I just looked at her performance and said, ‘That’s her, that’s her and I called Waris and said we found you. Oh really, yes, we found you and then I found out that Liya is working as a model so I don’t know, it’s luck maybe, I don’t know.

(Q) : Liya could you talk about a little bit how your charity work may have Possibly inspired you?

(Liya Kebede) : We started shooting in Djibouti first. And just being there and being in the desert with all those women and a lot of women were circumcised and talking to them and trying to understand the circumstances in which they find themselves in all that I found really inspiring. I found some things to sort of tap into for this [movie]. In a way, with Waris, we have a lot of things in common" coming from East Africa … and coming to the West and dealing with that animal and coming into the fashion world. Also, her working at the U.N. [United Nations] and me also working for the U.N. on different things, but they’re quite similar. There’s a link to us that was sort of a bonus.

But at the same time, it was wonderful for me to discover the differences we had. And her life and being a nomad in Somalia and what that really meant. I had no idea what that meant until we were there and we were living with them [Somali nomads] and seeing them every day and looking at how they lived and how, really, they had nothing. She really came from this place that was nothing. And what it took for her to having just nothing around her to know in her heart what’s right and what’s wrong always, for some reason, and [she] always did the right move for herself, and not really wondering what the others were doing, and having this blind faith in herself to always move forward no matter what happened. If it were me having to decide to stay in London, not knowing [anybody], not knowing the language when they all left. For her to decide things that were completely crazy like this, I found it to be very inspiring.

(Q) : What did you discover about Somali culture that was different from your native Ethiopian culture?

(Liya Kebede) : Mostly what you discover is how similar everybody is. You find out how a lot of the difference is just politics. People really just want to have a simple life, and they’re really close together. I remember being in Djibouti, because that’s where we shot [part of "Desert Flower"], because that’s near the border [of Somalia]. I felt like I was home. I was literally in a different country, but a lot of them spoke Amharic, which I was so surprised about. Actually, the woman who plays Waris’ mother in the film spoke Amharic, so that’s how we communicated. She didn’t speak English.

She didn’t speak French, which I thought was hysterical.
And everybody drank Ethiopian coffee, so I used to sit around and drink Ethiopian coffee with them. They listen to Ethiopian music. I remember thinking, "It’s the same." Everybody wants to be part of the same thing. The people on the top are [the ones] looking and dividing. I’m Christian. Growing up in Ethiopia, it’s half-Christian and half-Muslim. You grow up with Muslim kids. I’m very much aware of their religion. Besides religion, a lot of it has to do with culture. And the culture actually seeps through and overlaps. [Somali and Ethiopian cultures] are more homogenous than we make of it. I guess that’s what I’m trying to say.

(Q) : Do you know if Waris’ aunt in London was as cruel to Waris in real life as it is portrayed in the "Desert Flower" movie?

(Liya Kebede) : I don’t see her as cruel. Looking at it, I think it comes from not having. Nobody really has anything, and nobody is really comfortable. I didn’t see it as a cruel thing. I think it’s surviving the way she knew how to.

(Q) : So do you think the aunt’s behavior is because there is a pecking order in the tribe?

(Liya Kebede) : Yes, there is. Definitely.

(Sherry Horman) : I was very happy about the strong British cast we got. That was very important. Also to bring that comedy into that drama, we didn’t want to make a ‘oh we’re so important political issue movie, you know? We wanted to bring out the message but we wanted to also have people to be able to have fun because what is the best weapon to survive? It’s a good sense of humor, you know and there was that ping pong play between Sally and Liya. I really appreciated that one.

(Q) : Since female genital mutilation is still being done in a lot of countries, what do you think is necessary to eliminate this practice?

(Sherry Horman) : Education, absolutely. It’s is a ritual that existed for over 3,000 years. I mean, as I said before, it’s baby steps. It’s really doing your fieldwork. It’s really talking, us talking, you writing about it. I mean you know that 20,000 girls in New York City every year are mutilated, only in New York. It’s a number that really blows me away. When our director of photography heard that number, he said,’I have to do that movie now. We have to do something. And also, a lot of people are not scared to watch it. That’s why we brought in the humor that they say, hey, it’s also about surviving, it’s also about chances you get; you are a shepherd girl and you have a chance to make something out of your life.

(Q) : "Desert Flower" is a movie that is about turning points. What were some turning points in your life? And when did you know you wanted to be a model and actress?

(Liya Kebede) : I suppose like many people, you have a lot of turning points. For me, this movie is definitely a turning point, the most recent thing. That definitely changed my life in the way I want to go forward.I grew up watching films. Film has been part of my life since I was a child. Growing up in Ethiopia, our best thing to do was to get a film and watch at home. It was the most exciting thing we could ever do. I loved that. I always loved having the chance to disappear in a story. I always was kind of obsessed with that. Maybe five years ago, I think I had the guts to try and do an acting class. And then that’s kind of how it started.

(Q) : Can you talk about what the U.N. is doing to eliminate the practice of female genital mutilation now?

(Sherry Horman): I think the fact that Waris associated herself with the U.N. at that time and talked about the issue, what really happened is not just the U.N. working [to eliminate the practice of female genital mutilation] but so many organizations also started [toward the same cause]. There are so many great organizations that are working underground that are really getting breakthroughs. I’ve gone and seen some communities that some organizations have worked on that have gone from 90 percent mutilation rates to nothing. So I think there are a lot of organizations that are doing the right work toward this [cause].

(Sherry Horman): I mean she was a turning point. She was the first woman to talk about it publicly. So, that’s why she’s my hero because it always needs a first person and the aftermath of her first speech is, I think, what makes change.

(Q) : What was the challenge of shooting in the desert?

(Sherry Horman) : Very difficult location because Djibouti was unknown territory because we had to fly in and ship in everything, generator, every light bulb, everything had to be shipped in and it was very funny the day we shot the waterhole I had a great shot list and we arrived at the set and there was a nomad strike. The nomads were just occupying the location and I was wondering where are all the nomads coming from because for me it was an empty country, empty desert and they were everywhere and they were blocking us, they said we want $5,000. I said, what?

And then our producer had to go under the only tree and talk negotiate with a mister chief nomad and I was just watching the sun going down and going down and by the end of the day, like around 3 o’clock in the afternoon my shots were reduced to 3 shots. So that’s the reality of shooting in Djibouti.

(Q) : Did you see any dailies [daily footage] while filming "Desert Flower"? And how did you feel the first time you saw the final cut of the movie?

(Liya Kebede) : I did not see any rushes or dailies, thanks to her [director Sherry Hormann]. It was forbidden. It was a blur the first time I watched it. The producer came over and showed it to me in a private screening. I was so nervous, I don’t think I watched it. I think I was just staring. It was really hard for me to watch, because it was really the first time I was seeing myself on screen and I was really nervous.
.
(Q) : Have you since?

(Liya Kebede) : Yes. Many times.

End.