Actor in film warning of revenge killings shot dead in family feud

"No man avenged has ever risen from the grave" is the haunting tagline of a film that has shocked Somalis to the core in a case of life imitating art.

Called Aano Qabiil, meaning "Clan Vengeance", the short film sought to highlight the futility of vendettas between rival clans that sometimes go back generations and lead to senseless killings - often of young men who are targeted just because of their lineage.

It was a poetic warning, a cry - a story intended not just to entertain, but to educate a wounded nation.

Since its release earlier this month, it has gone viral as people have learnt that one of the actors in the drama was later shot dead in exactly the kind of clan revenge killing the film had warned about.

Guudey Mohamed Geedi, a veteran of Somali cinema, had played a character who tried to intervene to stop the owner of a teashop from being killed as he hid in a building from gunmen from a rival clan.

Outside a woman is heard shouting: "Don't let him leave alive, I want to drink his blood," as Geedi's character pleads: "He's just a tea vendor - what did he do to you that warrants his death":[]}