HAIYU

An iconic singer’s life, music and lyrics are deeply intertwined with the struggle for freedom in a country known as Africa’s last colony.

The title of this film is also the name of iconic singer Mariem Hassan’s song, an exuberant rally cry for revolution and freedom in Western Sahara. The result of a collaboration between filmmaker collectives RåFILM from Sweden and Saharawi Voice from the Western Sahara refugee camps in Algeria, HAIYU interweaves Mariem Hassan’s music and her personal quest for her country’s independence with larger historical events dating back to the region’s Spanish colonisation, and subsequent occupation by Morocco. Archive footage and interviews with family, artists, friends and revolutionaries detail Hassan’s commitment and compassion, while her evocative music and poetry not only represent her spirit, but that of the Saharawi women, and a people who continue their struggle for self-determination and the battle for their land and resources.