Youth (2017)
There's a phrase that gets thrown around a lot in film writing: "you've never seen anything quite like this." Most of the time it's hyperbole. With Youth (original title Dhalinyaro), directed by Lula Ali Ismaïl, it happens to be literally true. This is the first feature film ever made in Djibouti, full stop. That fact alone gives it a cultural weight that's almost impossible to separate from the viewing experience, and honestly, I wouldn't want to.
The story centres on three 18-year-old high school girls, each from a different rung of the social ladder, all trying to figure out who they are and where they're headed. It's a coming-of-age film, clearly, but the specific world it inhabits is one most of us have never been invited into before. Djibouti, a small nation on the Horn of Africa, is not a place that gets much screen time anywhere, let alone as the vivid, textured, fully-realised setting of a film about the messiness of late adolescence. I found myself genuinely absorbed just by the act of watching this world unfold.
What struck me most was the tension these young women feel between their roots and the pull of the wider world. Tradition and technology are constantly tugging at each other here. There's a fascinating social detail I hadn't known before watching this: travelling to France for further education functions as a kind of defining rite of passage for young Djiboutian women of a certain background. The weight that puts on these characters, the hope and the anxiety bundled up in that possibility, gives the film a real emotional anchor. Ismaïl handles it well. She keeps the specific and the universal in balance, so that even if you know nothing about Djibouti going in, you recognise the feelings immediately. The cinematography is beautiful too, and the three lead actresses bring a genuine warmth that carries the whole thing.
That said, I want to be honest about where Youth falls short of being something truly special. As a coming-of-age story, it's a solid, likeable example of the genre, but it does play things fairly safe. The beats are familiar. You can feel where the story is heading well before it gets there, and there's nothing in the structure that really catches you off guard or reframes what you've seen. It's a film that earns its charm rather than its surprise. I had a similar feeling watching She Paradise, that same rhythmic, slice-of-life quality where the pleasure comes from the authenticity of the world rather than any sharp narrative detours. That's not a dismissal, it's just worth knowing what you're getting.
Because what you're getting is still worth your time. The cultural significance here is real, not just as a trivia footnote but as a genuine reason to watch. Ismaïl isn't leaning on the "first ever Djiboutian feature" label as a crutch. She's made a proper film, one with actual craft and feeling behind it. It just happens to also be a genuinely rare window into a place and a set of lives that cinema has almost entirely ignored until now.
Three stars. Warm, beautifully shot, and a little predictable. But I'd recommend it without hesitation to anyone who wants their viewing habits to stretch somewhere new.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2017 | Watched: 2026-07-02
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
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Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
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