Sabrina Elba will join the cast of “Nuur.” The upcoming feature from director Lula Ali Ismaïl (“Dhalinyaro”) is being produced by Scythia Films, the banner behind the Oscar-nominated “The Apprentice.” Elba joins previously announced cast members Omar Abdi (“The Gravedigger’s Wife”) and Hamza Fouad (“Riverdale”).
The film is adapted from the novel “The Youth of God” by Hassan Ghedi Santur, who also wrote the script. In it, Nuur, the title character, is a sensitive and academically gifted 17-year-old boy growing up in Toronto’s Somali community in Dixon. Elba will portray Haawo, the resilient Somali mother to Nuur and his older brother, Ayuub. When Haawo lived in Mogadishu, Somalia, she worked as a flight attendant and was married to a successful architect. Years later, she is depressed, grappling with a failed marriage and stuck in a dead-end job at Walmart. When Nuur goes missing, she goes on a journey to bring him home.
“I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to play Haawo in ‘Nuur,’ a role that means so much to me,” Elba said in a statement. “It’s a privilege to work alongside the talented and inspiring Lula Ali Ismail, whose collaboration has been nothing short of amazing. It’s truly an honor to be part of such a meaningful project.”
The film’s producers include Daniel Bekerman, Chris Yurkovich and Neil Mathieson of Arbitrage Pictures. Jordan Hart will executive produce for Scythia Films with Michael Bronner and Bhakti Shringarpure executive producing for Smashing Dandelions. Steve Alexander and Idylia Hachi are also executive producers. Telefilm Canada is one of the funding partners of the production. Casting is currently underway.
Elba is an actress and producer known for her performance in “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” which co-starred her husband, Idris Elba. Beyond her on-screen work, Elba was appointed UN Goodwill Ambassador for IFAD in April 2020 and has focused on addressing issues faced by rural women and girls. Elba is represented by The Artists Partnership.
Scythia Films recently produced “Endless Cookie,” an animated feature doc from Seth Scriver and Peter Scriver, and executive produced “The Wedding Banquet,” a romantic comedy directed by Andrew Ahn and starring Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran and Bowen Yang.