Norway’s first documentary short heading for an Oscar nomination

Norwegian director Mari Bakke Riise’s Kayayo – The Living Shopping Baskets (Kayayo) is among the 10 documentary shorts that the Oscar Academy Wednesday (5 December)  shortlisted from 77 submissions from all over the world for the 2018 nominations in the category. The five nominations will be published on 23 January ahead of the Oscar Gala on 4 March.

If selected Kayayo – The Living Shopping Baskets will be Norway’s first nomination in the category; it follows Bamunu, an eight-year-old girl, who has not seen her family for two years. They have sent her from their little village in northern Ghana to the capital of Accra, where she works as a kayayo (carrier).

From kaya (luggage, cargo in the Hausa/Chaic language) and ye (woman in Ga/Kwa), 10,000 girls from the age of six make a few quid in the markets as kayayos, walking around with big bowls on their heads, so the shopping ladies have something to put their heavy goods in. They live in the streets and work 12 hours a day, sometimes even unpaid.

The girls, who often get physical injuries, are not allowed to return to their poor families until they have saved a certain amount of money – and they do not know when they will be sent back, as decribed in the film which has won 12 top prizes on the international festival circuit, ao at the Big Sky Documentary Festival in Montana, USA.

An educated documentary director at Oslo’s Nordic Institute of Stage and Studio, Riise started as an editor, but has for the last eight years directed numerous documentaries for film and television. Kayayo – The Living Shopping Baskets is produced by Jørgen Lorentzen for Integral Film.

Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2018. The 90th Oscars® will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018. Read about all the shortlisted films here.