Ugandan Talemwa Pius’ striking magic realist fable “A Vineyard for a Lobster” and “Accept My Plea for a Burial,” a Somalia set critique of ancient custom, emerged triumphant at Locarno’s 2026 Open Doors, winning its two biggest cash prizes.
Neither prize comes as a surprise.
Picturing a miraculous snowfall in a drought-ridden Ugandan village, in “A Vineyard for a Lobster,” Pius cleverly spins a political fable of broader collective breakdown, as characters – a desperate trader, a disgraced priest and a reluctant chairman – react to the miracle in self-serving ways rather than thinking about any common good. As their ambitions escalate, the village threatens to fall apart. From Kampala-based Gripmagic, “in the film, an impossible snowfall in a Ugandan village becomes a political allegory, echoing colonial intrusion,” Pius told Variety.
A €20,000 cash prize was also granted by Open Doors to “Accept My Plea for Burial” (“Baryo Aas Iga Gudoon”), by Mohammed Sheikh a Djibouti, Somalia and Qatar. It kicks in when Warmooge, 12, falls to his death while playing with Waasuge, a fellow goatherd. The village elder fails to resolve the case via customary law and religious counsel. Minnesota-based U.S.-Somali filmmaker Sheik’s follow-up to “Barni,” screening at Locarno, this is “a morally complex story where there is no clear truth, told through a rarely seen Somali cultural framework,” Sheikh told Variety.
