Khadar Ayderus Ahmed

Khadar Ayderus Ahmed was born on 10 January 1981 in Mogadishu, Somalia.^[1] At the age of 16, he moved to Finland as a refugee with his family.^[2][3][4]

In 2008, he wrote the script the award-winning short film Citizens, directed by Juho Kuosmanen, for which he also served as second assistant director.^[5]

In 2014, he directed his first short Me ei vietetä joulua, which received critical acclaim. He later directed two more shorts: Yövaras (2017) and The Killing of Cahceravga (2018).^[6]

In 2021, Ahmed directed his first feature film, The Gravedigger's Wife (Guled & Nasra).^[7] The film premiered in July 2021 in the Critics' Week section at the 74th Cannes Film Festival.^[8]

The Gravedigger's Wife was nominated for the Critics' Week Grand Prize and Caméra d'Or at Cannes.^{[citation needed]} It received wide critical acclaim and screened in multiple film festivals, including FESPACO where it won the Golden Stallion of Yennenga, the festival's top prize.^{[citation needed]} The film was also nominated for the Grand-Prix Award under the International Competition at the Kyiv International Short Film Festival.^{[citation needed]} He was also nominated for the Amplify Voices Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.^{[citation needed]}

The film became the first Somali submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.^[9][10]