Film on Senegalese women’s Cyprus migration sheds light on resilience in face of inequalities

Films filmsmigrationsenegalTop News Film on Senegalese women’s Cyprus migration sheds light on resilience in face of inequalities The Lion At My Back 1024x576 Relevant News Trade union demands binding rules to protect workers from heat 8 July 2026 Film on Senegalese women’s Cyprus migration sheds light on resilience in face of inequalities 8 July 2026 Psychologists association warns public over bioresonance and unproven therapies 8 July 2026 newsroom 8 July 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Tonia Mishiali, Cypriot director, has had her new feature film “The Lion at My Back”, premiere at the Karvoly Vary International Film Festival on Monday, July 6th, where it is now participating in the Crystal Globe competition. Tonia Mishiali was previously featured at the festival for her film “Pause”. “The Lion at My Back” follows the story of a teenage asylum seeker from Senegal, Mariama, and Stella, a 40-year old woman from Cyprus who is trying to rebuild her life. The pair meet seemingly randomly and form a close bond that later develops into a story of solidarity, motherhood, and survival, revolving around migration and social inequalities in contemporary Cyprus. Mishiali stated in an interview with Variety that she did not aim to make another film about migration, but wished to tell a story about the strength of two women who recognise the common need to hope and claim a better life, despite their different starting points, saying “They were always looking at life positively, they were grateful for managing to be where they are. Everything that is a struggle they don’t see it as a struggle. They’re very resilient. So I wanted to kind of combine these two stories, and that’s how I came up with the idea of Mariama and Stella.” She notes that the film explores female resilience in the face of patriarchy, as well as loss and displacement. The story is told though an unconventional friendship between two women that transforms into a form of chosen family. “I wanted it to be a note to motherhood. I have a teenage daughter — well, when I started writing the film, she was a teenager. I wanted to write a film about the complex relationship between mothers and daughters, because I think it’s very special, but it’s very complex at the same time,” she told Variety. The director explained that the choice to set the story in Cyprus was not a passing choice. It was specifically decided due to the island being at the forefront of migration flows into Europe in the recent years, a fact that is well known despite people’s personal stories never being shared. Mishiali noted that fiction can evoke empathy and illuminate experiences that are lost behind statistics and political discussions. Michiali revealed to Screen Daily that only 6 weeks before production, the actress she had cast in the leading role of Mariama withdrew from the film for personal reasons, forcing the crew to begin searching for their lead actress from scratch. Sokhna Diallo’s casting ultimately proved decisive in the completion of the film at a time when financing and international co-production required delicate handling. “One-and-a-half months before the shoot, she disappeared. I was worried about her first and not so much about losing my actress. She called me a week later and said, ‘I’m sorry, I left the country; my family were running after me.’ I’m not going to go into detail about why but it was life-threatening, and she had to keep changing countries,” she told Screen Daily The filmmaker described the process as particularly stressful, pointing out that for an independent European film, a major change so close to production has the chance to be disastrous. Despite this, she still believes that the final casting gave the film a sense of authenticity that would have been hard to achieve otherwise. The Lion At My Back 1 1024×576 “The Lion at My Back” is a co-production of Cyprus, Luxembourg, Serbia, and France. The film stars Sohna Diallo, Elena Kallinikou, Prokopis Agathokleous, and Herodotus Miltiadous, with distribution handled by Finnish company ‘The Yellow Affair’. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Trade union demands binding rules to protect workers from heat Psychologists association warns public over bioresonance and unproven therapies Three remanded over Kofinou robbery and abduction of 65-year-old EU Parliament calls for justice for victims of sexual violence during 1974 Turkish invasion Overnight pharmacies on Wednesday, July 8 Ecologists movement opposes any plan to kill stray dogs in Paphos forest Gang of youths suspected behind string of Limassol food delivery driver robberies Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.