Samater Ahmed

Tells the true story of Ramla Ali, who fled Somalia with her family as a young girl, seeking asylum in London from the civil war. As a teenager, she pursued her love of boxing, but did so secretly as she knew her family would disapprove. Ali became the first boxer, male or female, to represent Somalia at the 2020 Olympic Games and made history after winning the first ever professional female boxing match in Saudi Arabia.

The Elephant in the Room isn’t a story about a ship, or a journey to another land. This is a story about today and 6 characters who are still experiencing the impact of our colonial history, in cities that have only just begun to speak about their complex past. Throughout the film, these characters are met with denial, reluctance, avoidance, ignorance and ultimately silence, as they figure out how to be seen and heard in a system that was never built for them.