Tuesday night, all of Addis celebrated Waris Dirie: as a part of the Addis Ababa International Film Festival, which started on Monday, the movie “Desert Flower” celebrated its official Africa premiere.

Ethiopian minister of culture and tourism Mohamoud Dirir opened the festival, stressing the importance of “socially responsible” movies in Ethiopia.

The audience honoured Waris Dirie with standing ovations after the movie.

“I am so happy to be able to finally show the movie to an African audience”, Waris Dirie said during the event. “It is so important that this movie is shown here!”

Waris brought her mother, brother, nephews and nieces to the premiere. “It was the first time that I could show my family the movie and it was very emotional for me” she said.

The Ethiopian minister of culture and tourism, Mohamoud Dirir, during his opening speech; Waris Dirie with the director of the filmfestival, Maji-da Abdi.

Below, you can see a video of the event.