[1] In 1984-1985, Ahmed directed his first feature film, The Somali Darwish (alt.
[1][3] With a budget of $1.8 million, the 4-hour-and-40-minute epic was devoted to the polity of Darawiish king Diiriye Guure, i.e. the Dervish Movement.
In the film dialogue you can hear seven languages: Somali, Arabic, Italian, English, and three regional dialects.
The movie included an actual descendant of Diiriye Guure's emir, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan as its star, Sheikh Osman Mohamoud Omar, and featured hundreds of actors and extras.
He subsequently wrote the children's book The Lion's Share, which served as the basis for a Somali folklore-based play that he both penned and produced for the SteppingStone Theatre.