Lula Ali Ismaïl

Lula Ali Ismaïl (Somali: Luula Cali Ismaaciil) (born 1978) is a Djibouti-Canadian film director and screenwriter. She is the first woman from Djibouti to produce a film, earning her the nickname of "the first lady of the Djibouti cinema." The directed the 27-minute fiction short Laan (2011). The film was screened at the 2012 Montreal Vues d'Afrique festival, and in 2013 at FESPACO. In 2014 she started working on a feature film, Dhalinyaro, co-written with Alexandra Ramniceanu and Marc Wels. The film, Djibouti's first feature film, premiered in July 2017. Ali Ismail was born in Djibouti in 1978 to an Issa family, and in 1992 settled in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, as part of a wave of immigrants who left the poor and politically unstable African country. The youngest of eight children, she studied office automation, and worked as a legal assistant for seven years, but developed an interest in the world of acting and cinema, and began to take courses on the subject. At first, she played minor roles at several television series in Quebec, but found more interest in filmmaking.