Lost Warrior follows Al-Shabaab supporter Mohammed, who was recruited at a young age by the Al-Shabaab terrorist organization in England. After finding out what the terrorist organization was really about, he left Al-Shabaab and now lives undocumented underground in Mogadishu. He wants to flee Somalia and reunite with his young wife and son in England. Before Al-Sahaab finds and kills him.
Mohammad was just three years old when he was sent from Somalia to England unaccompanied by his parents, hoping to have a better life there. But as a teenager in London, he engaged in criminal activity that landed him in prison, where he became radicalized. At age 19, he was deported to Somalia, which brought him directly into the arms of the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab. But when Mohammed realizes that Al-Shabaab is not a freedom movement but targets and kills innocent people, he decides to flee. As a 23-year-old, he lives under the radar in Mogadishu, hiding from Al-Shabaab. Here he meets Fathi, who was born in London but sent to Somalia for “re-education.” They marry and when Fathi travels back to London, she is pregnant with their child. The film follows the young couple’s attempts to reunite as a family to create a future for themselves and their son Yassir. But Fathi and Mohammed are not only challenged by the prevailing world politics that make Mohammed virtually without citizenship. They are also trapped by their own culture and its demands to uphold traditional and religious practices that are not in keeping with being young in today’s modern society.
Soren Steen Jespersen graduated from the Danish School of Journalism in 1993 and works as both a director and producer. He was most recently co-nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary for the production of Last Men in Aleppo (2017), winner of the Sundance “Grand Jury Prize” and “Cinema Eye Honors” 2018. Lost Warrior is his second film, as director, about radicalism. The previous film, Warriors from the North (2014), won several awards, including the Best Mid-Length Documentary Award at Hotdocs in 2015.
Nasib Farah is a self-taught filmmaker and freelance journalist. He co-directed two award-winning documentaries, My Cousin the Pirate (2011) and Warriors from the North (2014), which won several awards, including Best Mid-Length Documentary Hot Docs in 2015.
